We cannot understand all the traits we have inherited. Sometimes we can be strangers to ourselves.

That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

One isn’t born one’s self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people’s ideas – and you have to work through it all.

Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.

It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.

The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.

Home is, I suppose just a child's idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.

One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.

The world is always in movement.

All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

If you will be deep enough to concentrate and study or rehearse anything, the world will bow in honor to you.

Negativity feeds on itself, thereby compounding the potentially undesirable outcomes.

I have the utmost respect and 'aloha' for black people - who have already suffered so much due to racial discrimination and acts of hatred.

I love the bullshit morning shows. They're so stupid but I love them.

You've got to be original, because if you're like someone else, what do they need you for?

A low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea of the brotherhood of men.

Being president of a major public university is the most political nonpolitical office around.

There is nothing "ordinary" about reality.

It's not what you do, it's how you feel while doing it.

Break through the bonds of your past.