And there's something you can always tell people who want to learn more about the world and who don't know how to find a cause to support. You can always tell them to read.

If I'd waited until I was well rested to read, I never would have read anything.

I was learning that when you're with someone who is dying, you may need to celebrate the past, live the present, and mourn the future all at the same time.

That's one of the amazing things great books like this do - they don't just get you to see the world differently, they get you to look at people, the people all around you, differently.

It was the women of afghanistan, my mother believed, who-once they’d been granted access to books and education- would be the salvation of the country

I think it's because it shows that people--or hobbits, as the case may be--can find strength they didn't know they had.

...two different kinds of Japanese psychotherapies, one based on getting people to stop using feelings as an excuse for their actions and the other based on getting people to practice gratitude.

...mindfulness - it isn't a trick or a gimmick. It's being present in the moment. When I'm with you, I'm with you. Right now. That's all. No more and no less.

You can only do what you can, and what doesn't get done, just doesn't get done.

Oh, dear--did I forget to mention that you can, indeed, have it all, but you need a lot of help!

The thing about Americans, ” she said, “is that you’re very concerned about everything all the time.

Start where you are-do anything you can do, and do everything you can do, until you find something you must do! That something is probably your spiritual gift.

Everyone doesn’t need to have the same beliefs, we just need to start believing in everyone.

There are plagues, and there are victims, and it's the duty of good men not to join forces with the plagues.

I do hate the City of London! It is the only thing which ever comes between us.

It is dangerous to attach probability zero to anything other than a logical impossibility.

I won't read a book that starts with a description of the weather. I don't read books over 300 pages, though I'll make an exception for Don Delillo.

In order to successfully impersonate men, the woman [Margaret Thatcher] launched a war.

I think I'm a music fan before anything else.

I'd say my religious life has shaped my worldview; my writing, I'd say too, is an extension of the pulpit...it reaches folks who don't care for organized religion in a different way.

They [corporations] feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.