The most fundamental thing about a person is desire. It defines them. Tell me what a person wants, truly wants, and I'll tell you who they are, and how to persuade them.

People resist a census, but give them a profile page and they'll spend all day telling you who they are.

It was always this way: The more people talked, the more they obscured. You didn't need to argue for the truth. You could see it.

Well, I like to know where I'm going before I try to get there. It's a mistake to try to execute a plan before you've thought of one, in my experience.

Within perfect walls there is nothing worth protecting. There is, in fact, nothing. And so we exchange privacy for intimacy.

'Your brain doesn't process language quite like other people. Why that is, I have no idea.' 'I have a superior brain?' 'Uh, ' Eliot said, 'I wouldn't go that far.'

Wil ate without enthusiasm. His bacon tasted like nothing. Like a dead animal, fried. His eggs, aborted chickens.

[S]he was in a pretty crazy place, screaming and waving the bucket-knife around, spattered with blood from head to toe. Lee was lying on the floor, quietly pumping out his life through his throat.

Perhaps you should put your head down.” I knew this was the thing to do, although I’ve never fainted and I don’t intend to.

I’m like a fish in a pool, turning quickly to avoid what challenges it. My only decision is whether to go right or left to sidestep confrontation.

...to alienate human beings from their own decision-making is to change them into objects.

People do forget there is still a lot of nostalgia in Russia for the Soviet Union.

Pleasure involves respect, and respect starts with words.

Consumed by the agony of remembrance The remembrance of night's festive company The one remaining candle flickers and dies.

Nobody wants to remain poor. Those who are poor want to move away from poverty. That is why, all our programmes must be for the poor. All our schemes must serve the poor.

That's what life is: an open door to all that is possible. And that's a powerful thing.

It's very easy for me to take on other people's energy, so my personal mantra is " Love yourself, love yourself, love yourself. "

Because of its tremendous solemnity death is the light in which great passions, both good and bad, become transparent, no longer limited by outward appearances.