The only unavailable choice was whether or not to have Parkinson's. Everything else was up to me.

Zoos are becoming facsimiles - or perhaps caricatures - of how animals once were in their natural habitat. If the right policies toward nature were pursued, we would need no zoos at all.

The American political experience can therefore be viewed as optimism in the collective.

You suffer the blow, but you capitalize on the opportunity left in its wake.

Motherhood is at its best when the tender chords of sympathy have been touched.

What does it mean to be Catholic and not a Catholic? I feel adrift, homeless. My Catholic imagination allows me to see the soul as a lit breath, seeking the divine. It persists.

The most evident quality of human life is its loneliness.

I've never spoken to Bon Iver, but I would love to. I'm a huge fan!

We are different people - you get a different take on the band whoever you speak to. Somehow, at the end of it, it goes through the filtering process and out comes the Radiohead thing.

I just consider myself a committed actor. If a movie is a success, that's great; I'm happy for that. But I've learned just to concentrate on my job and do the best that I can.

Jewels, lies, slips of paper, dried flowers, memories of thing long past, useless quotations, idle hands, beads, buttons, and mischief.

Church is a place where you get to practice what it means to be human.

There are a lot of really good shows that don't win anything.

I would love to be in Kansas.