We're all surrounded by what I call faux language, fake language of commerce, of news media.

I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer - its dust and lowering skies.

If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.

The function of freedom is to free someone else.

Don’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.

For someone like myself in whom the ability to trust others is so cracked and broken that I am wretchedly timid and am forever trying to read the expression on people's faces.

There is nothing to be lost by experimenting with the sickened human mind and body.

Forgiveness is given to us from God not because we deserve it. Forgiveness is given to us by the grace of God.(Paraphrased message from the Bible.)

What it comes down to is intense desire. To get this winning edge, you need to build an indomitable will. This means you must be relentless; you must never give up.

My guess is that the editor [Cincinnati Post] wanted his own Jeff MacNelly (a Pulitzer winner at 24), and I didn't live up to his expectations. My Cincinnati days were pretty Kafkaesque.

The thrill of achievement comes from overcoming adversity in the accomplishment of an important goal.

Principles have a way of enduring, as do the few irreducible individuals who maintain allegiance to them.

There should be a balance between material and spiritual progress, a balance achieved through the principles based on love and compassion.

True faith begins with true repentance for whatever we have been doing that is wrong.

I love to act. And oh-so-love telling stories through film as an actor. Even on my days off.