People think that writing is writing, but actually writing is editing. Otherwise, you're just taking notes

What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion.

You know, you can steel your heart against any kind of trouble, any kind of horror. But the simple act of kindness from a complete stranger will unstitch you.

In this time of the Internet and nonfiction, to be on an actual bookshelf in an actual bookstore is exciting in itself.

What we know about who we are comes from stories. It's the agents of our imagination who really shape who we are.

The privilege of being a writer is that you have this opportunity to slow down and to consider things.

My friend Ronald Gottesman says...that the cause of all our trouble is the belief in an essential, pure identity: religious, ethnic, historical, ideological.

You can count on Scandinavian literature for a certain kind of darkness, a modern mythic style.

Men do communicate, often very directly, but women sometimes cannot accept how simple what we have to say is. We seldom play games--we aren't that sophisticated.

Before you speak, my friend, remember, a spiritual man contain his anger. Angry words are like slap in de face.

Time was the only variable in every equation of power and oppression--how long before the pot boiled over.

Heartbreak, death and loss were shared between us, but renewal, commitment and strength as well.

Wait. Are you about to do something really stupid? -GUARD

Just because yet unable to comprehend the real form of the edge, doesn't mean that this universe is infinite.

You're brilliant, "he says."But you're a fool to stay with someone like me."I close my eyes at the touch of his hand."Then we are both fools.

Real liberation comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling, but only from experiencing them to the full.

When you help others feel important, you help yourself feel important too.

As a father, I wanted to make a movie that my kids can love.

You never have these moments that, you know, are always perfect. Always something happens.

We do yoga to make life more beautiful.. to stop misery from entering our world.

... it's Bush's baby, even if he shares its popularization with Gorbachev. Forget the Hitler 'new order' root; F.D.R. used the phrase earlier.