The old and honorable American notion, that a person who works hard should be able to live in freedom and security, with dignity - seems to have taken on a secondary status.

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.

Style is not about the clothes, it's about the individual

With fewer and fewer corporations controlling more and more of the world's trade, there is an ever greater need to know more about the practices of these large faceless organizations.

I'm not disappointed in [Barack] Obama. He said who he is; he's doing what he said he would do.

God's wisdom is not, and never was, pledged to keep a fallen world happy, or to make ungodliness comfortable.

You fill up the frame with feelings, energy, discovery, and risk, and leave room enough for someone else to get in there.

The average for entrepreneurs is 3.8 failures before they finally make it in business.

O freedom, first delight of human kind!

* We have come this far always believing that justice would somehow prevail. This is the burden, this is the promise, and THIS is why we will not fail.

You're sure he's not a vampire?' Claire said.'I've seen movies. They're sneaky.' She was kidding. Eve didn't smile.

Never was a cornflake girl; Thought it was a good solution: hanging with the raisin girls.