People used to expect literary novels to deepen the experience of living; now they are happy with any sustained display of writerly cleverness.

The reality is we all have to work together to make it work. We're going to be congenial with everyone. We're not telling people to park on the street.

Just after Kim Jong Il's death, the official news agency put out an article saying that under Kim Jong Il's rule, the people had been like naive children without a care in the world.

Confucianism is all about tempering your instincts with intellectual discipline, with book learning.

I think the West needs to get away from the habit of regarding the regime's nuclear tests and ballistic launches as isolated provocations timed to generate maximum attention.

If South Korea is going to survive, and keep the peace on the peninsula, its citizens need to start conveying support for their state.

Talking is always a good idea. There's no harm in keeping lines of communication open.

Persecution happens when we stand in the face of our enemy. Friendship with the world is to conspire with that same enemy.

Spiritual ignorance helps nobody.

The Word of God is our measuring stick against all deception.

As Christians, we're supposed to be the salt of the earth, not the filler.

We're going to be okay. Lainey isn't the glue that keeps us together. We are. We're the glue. Okay?

Grief is only the memory of widowed affections.

I always thought it mattered, to know what is the worst possible thing that can happen to you, to know how you can avoid it, to not be drawn by the magic of the unspeakable.

Unreal. I'm feeling nostalgic for something that happened less than twenty-four hours ago. This has got to be a record.

This is what forty looks like. We've been lying so long, who would know?

Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.

To be an aritst is not to wait for others to define us, but to define ourselves, claim our lives.

By saying you don’t care if the world falls apart, in some small way you’re saying you want it to stay together, on your own terms.

Between madness and sanity, there is a shifting boundary. It is impossible to explain. Time slows down and you have to try to fill it. You don't have anything but solitude.

It's great to be strong but strength is nothing without having compassion.