We've got a real problem with social media that we didn't know we were going to have. It's almost like the demons have gotten out of the box.

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.

Death stalked toward us on padded feet.       And it was not alone.

You're not supposed to laugh at your own father. Ever.

Fighting does not make you a hero. Love does.

If women were particular about men's characters, they would never get married at all.

Imagination does not enable us to invent as many different contradictions as there are by nature in every heart.

I'm just figuring out being able to understand that it's cool for me to date, and have guys be interested in me, and be interested in guys.

Moments of solitude are the holiest moments to think wisely!

Robert was concerned with how to make the photograph, and I with how to be the photograph.

It is the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible. It is the Holy Spirit who illumines the Bible.

I hope I have found myself, my work, my happiness - under the light of the western skies.