We're tortured, a lot of us, believe me.

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

A finished person is a boring person.

There is a little boy inside the man who is my brother... Oh, how I hated that little boy. And how I love him too.

After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'm enough.'

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.

There is a lot of talk now about metal detectors and gun control. Both are good things. But they are no more a solution than forks and spoons are a solution to world hunger.

Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.

You are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life ... Your entire life ... Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.

America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.

It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.

The economics of the security world are all horribly, horribly nasty and are largely based on fear, intimidation and blackmail.

Christian love means two things at once: to recognize the Lord in one's neighbor and to recognize one's neighbor in the Lord.

I've been water-boarded, and I speak from experience, and it's torture.

As a reward for their efforts, however, those early Christians were beaten, stoned to death, thrown to the lions, tortured and crucified. Every conceivable method was used to stop them from talking.

The only way to avoid age discrimination in Hollywood is to die young.

Teachers perform major miracles in America, daily.

There are many languages in the world; in meaning all are the same. If you break the cups, water will be unified and will flow together.

He that wishes to see his country robbed of its rights cannot be a patriot.

Written laws are formulas in which we endeavor to express as concisely as possible that which, under such or such determined circumstances, natural justice demands.