Sad but true: individual intelligence probably peaked in the Upper Paleolithic, and we have been self-domesticated creatures ever since

...knowing too that [the sky] was just a kind of rainbow made it glorious. A rainbow that was blue everywhere and covered everything.

Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

To me, the difference between a good marriage and a great marriage is conviction.

The notion of democracy beginning to emerge scares the ideologues, the totalitarians, those who want to impose their vision. It just frightens them.

That's kind of the mystique If you [post your outfit] on Instagram all of the time, I'm going to see a bunch of people walking around looking like Shump.

To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth all the years of sorrow that are to come.

Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings, mainly for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. In short, it's modern day slavery.

Every time I get scared or feel like I'm not going to be good enough at something, I say that mantra to myself. "Pretend you're good at it."

The people who were against the Vietnam War thought I was attacking the Army. The guys in the Army thought I was representing their experiences. I was on both sides, and I survived.

In a country like South Africa, writers have nuisance value, because those of us who have become known overseas have certainly helped to inform people about what life is like there.

When you're down in Texas, Bob Wills is still the king.