Sometimes I just turn on the TV and I'm like, wait a minute, that guy [Donald Trump]? It's incredible that he did all those things and he still won. It's hard to process.

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.

Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.

According to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving. Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now.

It's a big world, and I really like it.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.

The generalizing writer is like the passionate drunk, stumbling into your house mumbling: I know I'm not being clear, exactly, but don't you kind of feel what I'm feeling?

Kindness, it turns out, is hard - it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and expands to include . . . well, EVERYTHING.

Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of regard

You miss a lot of a person’s life when you don’t keep in touch. Maybe that’s the point.

Take care to keep open house : Because in this way some have had angels as their guests, without being conscious of it ". Hebrews 13:2.

Down the steps, ...over the corpses, ...careers the pram with the child.

Loneliness is an integral part of travelling. I used to think it was the downside to travelling, but now I realise it is a necessary educative part of it to be embraced.

Scott Medlock's portrait of 'the shot heard around the world' from the 1935 Masters is still being celebrated as a moment in Golf History. Imagine that!

A cry-wanking scene is the struggle to live, in a single moment.

For me, I feel like, if the right movie comes along, I'd do it again. It's not about the budget. It's about whether it's something that I'm excited to work on.

Though bitter, good medicine cures illness. Though it may hurt, loyal criticism will have beneficial effects.

See the man on the TV with a phony smile. Bring you up, bring you down, he can turn your head around.