The idea - the core idea of humanism - is that the act of reading about great deeds will lead you to imitate them.

This is what language does: organize the world into manageable, and in some sense artificial, units that can then be inhabited and manipulated.

The purpose of a good education is to show you that there are three sides to a two-sided story.

Just as you can practice three-word sentences or sentences that travel across time zones, so can you practice writing sentences that breathe unshakable conviction.

Belief and knowledge are considered to be two different things. But they are not.

The first thing to ask when writing a sentence is 'What am I trying to do?'

Sentences can save us. Who could ask for anything more?

It is always incorrect to assume you can know what someone's moral convictions are based on their philosophical theories.

It may sound paradoxical, but verbal fluency is the product of many hours spent writing about nothing, just as musical fluency is the product of hours spent repeating scales.

Sentence writers are not copyists; they are selectors.

People write or speak sentences in order to produce an effect, and the success of a sentence is measured by the degree to which the desired effect has been achieved.

Look around you at the people you've been taught to hate, because hate is just a cloak that hides fear.

Isolation is a way to know ourselves.

Africa is not just about where you are born. For me, Africa is the whole continent; from south to north, to east to west.

I simply can't imagine the world will ever be normal again for us. I do talk about "after the war," but it's as if I'm talking about a castle in the air, something that can never come true.

Don't think I was the only reason he healed. You're his light, Marissa. Don't ever forget that.

The hardest part about being vegan is shoes. I mean, really, that's the only difficult part, finding shoes that don't have leather on them.

We cling to the letter because the spirit is so much harder to master.

Being a professional writer is not an easy way to make a living.

Unexpected wonders happen, not on schedule, or when you expect or want them to happen, but if you keep hanging around, they do happen.

I like what Oliver Lakes does on the saxophone. The saxophone comes pretty close to the sound of the human voice and when Oliver plays with other sax players, it's like a dialogue.