Roots are nice, but a tree can’t run.

A kid in an abusive home has far fewer rights than any POW. There is no Geneva Convention for kids.

The third person narrator, instead of being omniscient, is like a constantly running surveillance tape.

I don't understand people whose gratification is a BMW. You don't know what joy is until you see a kid who was tortured get adopted by a family.

Family' is not just a biological word, it's an an operative one.

Life is a fight, but not everyone’s a fighter. Otherwise, bullies would be an endangered species.

When you hunt predators, the best camouflage is weakness.

A dog is like a person—he needs a job and a family to be what he’s meant to be.

Children know the truth: love is not an emotion, love is behavior.

Camouflage doesn't help when the other guy is willing to defoliate the whole jungle.

It's the family you choose that counts.

I became an actor because it was my clumsy attempt to become myself.

It would be, like all of Pammy's parties, hot and crowded and filled with impossibly glamorous people with hip bones so sharp they could qualify as concealed weapons.

What few rules appear to be in place are all made up.

My mama always used to tell me: 'If you can't find somethin' to live for, you best find somethin' to die for.'

They have had such a crazy life living with me as their dad. Not crazy but different from their friends.

The Novelist, afraid his ideas may be foolish, slyly puts them in the mouth of some other fool and reserves the right to disavow them.

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

Riches do not come by crossing your fingers and walking through the day hoping. Riches and wealth comes from well-laid plans.

I always say that I'm not the director, I'm part of the team.

What matters are those ordinary acts of kindness and of love, not vaulting ambition with its attendant hubris and smugness.