...let the emotional weight of a scene rest on the dialogue wherever possible. This is the easy way to avoid overinterpretation, which seems to be what turns a scene from sympathetic to sentimental.

Depression is not sobbing and crying and giving vent, it is plain and simple reduction of feeling.

And if you ever do a survey, you'll find that people prefer illusion to reality, ten to one. Twenty, even.

People that keep stiff upper lips find that it's hard to smile.

Make notes—I’ve lost more material than I’ve ever written. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not still up there in one’s brain. It’s in outer space and it ain’t coming back.

Autonomy is the whole thing; it's what unhappy people are missing. They have given the power to run their lives to other people.

Some people have an unrealistic expectation when it comes to getting published; the fact is most publishers will turn down your work which is why you need to be persistent.

Writers don't write to inform other people, they write to find out something themselves.

Feeling is not selective, I keep telling you that. You can’t feel pain, you aren’t gonna feel anything else, either.

Make peace with what is.

I think living the blessed life is the luck of the draw.

Graduate study is an intensive education. You have to be diligent and determined from the beginning to the very end.

At the end, you find the beginning.

I grew up being into sports and I wasn't trained to move my body in the right way for dancing. I'm the last one to get any moves correct. In rehearsals it's always, 'OK, one more take for Zac.'

I think church and state should remain entirely separate at all costs, and that the decision of religious marriage should be of each faith to debate and decide free of political influence.

Queequeg was a native of Kokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down in any map; true places never are.

Music is a passion of mine. Im always listening, always learning.

Whatever the natural cause, sin is the true cause of all earthquakes.

You may pluck out my eyes, but that cannot kill me. You may chop off my nose, but that will not kill me. But blast my belief in God, and I am dead.

I found out that I could not choose a subject, throw it out of focus, and then have a good picture. I found that I had to learn to see No-focus from the beginning.

I intend that I am learning from my experiences so that I am only repeating the ones that bring me happiness.