The appetites of the body were private battles.

I suspect the most we can hope for, and it's no small hope, is that we never give up, that we never stop giving ourselves permission to try to love and receive love.

Traits don't change, states of mind do.

I actually see myself in all my characters. In order to imagine what it feels like to be another person I have to use my own experiences and responses to the world.

The facts didn't matter. Their stories mattered, and each of their stories belonged to each of them alone.

Had they known at these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not. People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it.

You surely know that in the course of a long marriage it is not unusual for a husband or a wife to develop a crush on someone else.

I'm so interested in the fact that we really don't know anybody. We think we know the people close to us, but we don't, we really don't.

In a way, I'm very interested in writing about Maine, because I think Maine represents its own kind of history. It's the oldest state, and it's the whitest state.

People like to think the younger generation's job is to steer the world to hell. But it's never true, is it? They're hopeful and good - and that's how it should be.

Or maybe, he thought, returning to the boxes, it was part of being Catholic--you were made to feel guilty about everything

Our society shuns people for being a bright light in the world. Sometimes if you are too futuristic people do not like how revolutionary you are

It would seem that the right to equality and human rights is far more an exclusive thing than an inclusive thing.

I grew up in a school that had a big music program, and it was incredible. It's what I looked forward to during the day. I had chorus, strings, band.

Fame does different things to different people. For some people it makes them a better person.

Running in the morning has me appreciate all the choices that come later in the day. The choices I make after running seem healthier, wiser and kinder.

I don't find music being less important than, like, politics.

There is a vital connection between satyagraha and charkha, and the more I find that belief challenged, the more I am confirmed in it.

I still frequent my parents' house. I go there to escape, back to the bedroom that I grew up in. Just to sit there and feel small.

The good we do today becomes the happiness of tomorrow.

The fretful stir Unprofitable, and the fever of the world Have hung upon the beatings of my heart.