The attempt to devote oneself to literature alone is a most deceptive thing, and ... often, paradoxically, it is literature that suffers for it.

It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.

Follow the man who seeks the truth; run from the man who has found it.

Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.

Nothing is more powerful than individuals acting out of their own conscience.

Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.

Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the market economy will function properly.

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

This is a confusing and uncertain period, when a thousand wise words can go completely unnoticed, and one thoughtless word can provoke an utterly nonsensical furor.

We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality.

There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight.

I have diligently disciplined my life to search out life’s gifts in the places where life stores its scraps.

My advice to someone to follow in my footsteps is to have patience. I've been doing this for twelve years.

I negotiated the proper timing and other things having to do with one of our other debates.

Distrust that man who tells you to distrust.

Evolution cannot be brought about by the use of dynamite.

I don't really want to be the costar of anyone's life.

Somehow, while I wasn't looking, I fell. And I fell hard.

I'm reserved, so I've always needed to find a way of opening up. Jazz helped me do that.

In high school I would mess with my hair and makeup all the time.

Can we somehow muster the courage and steadfastness of purpose that characterized the pioneers of a former generation? Can you and I, in actual fact, be pioneers [today]?