Religious experiences are real and common, whether or not God exists, and these experiences often make people whole and at peace.

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.

Morality binds people into groups. It gives us tribalism, it gives us genocide, war, and politics. But it also gives us heroism, altruism, and sainthood.

Reciprocity is a deep instinct; it is the basic currency of social life.

The most powerful force ever known on this planet is human cooperation - a force for construction and destruction.

Empathy is an antidote to righteousness, although it's very difficult to empathize across a moral divide

Sacredness binds people together, and then blinds them to the arbitrariness of the practice.

The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.

Human rationality depends critically on sophisticated emotionality. It is only because our emotional brain works so well that our reasoning can work at all.

Diversity is not a virtue. Diversity is a good only to the extent that it advances other virtues, justice or inclusiveness of others who have previously been excluded.

Morality binds and blinds. It binds us into teams … but thereby makes us go blind to objective reality.

Not every winged Creature is considered a bird or a bat. Some wings are made of magic.- Raani York – 2013 -

When we search for something larger than our own selves to hook into, we can come through whatever life throws at us.

I just happen to believe that people are not stupid.

Writing is a process of discovering. I could never outline a narrative; that just sounds boring. There's no joy of discovery in what you're doing if that's your strategy.

He smiled, she smiled, they knew right away, this was the day they'd waited for their whole lives, for a moment the whole world revolved around one boy & one girl.

My brother and I tortured my mother growing up.

I make a gesture that is intended to convey, "Hey, no hurry, talk as long as you'd like," and probably actually conveys, "Hey, look at me! I have spastic hands.

the wasting of time is the most personal, most private, most intimate form of conversation with oneself, as well as with another.

I'm a really good swimmer.

Had it pleas'd heaven To try me with affliction * * * I should have found in some place of my soul A drop of patience.