He wanted to put his arms around her, but she had a darkness that seemed to stand beside her like an acquaintance that would not go away.

I suspect the most we can hope for, and it's no small hope, is that we never give up, that we never stop giving ourselves permission to try to love and receive love.

Traits don't change, states of mind do.

I actually see myself in all my characters. In order to imagine what it feels like to be another person I have to use my own experiences and responses to the world.

The facts didn't matter. Their stories mattered, and each of their stories belonged to each of them alone.

Had they known at these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not. People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it.

You surely know that in the course of a long marriage it is not unusual for a husband or a wife to develop a crush on someone else.

I'm so interested in the fact that we really don't know anybody. We think we know the people close to us, but we don't, we really don't.

In a way, I'm very interested in writing about Maine, because I think Maine represents its own kind of history. It's the oldest state, and it's the whitest state.

People like to think the younger generation's job is to steer the world to hell. But it's never true, is it? They're hopeful and good - and that's how it should be.

Or maybe, he thought, returning to the boxes, it was part of being Catholic--you were made to feel guilty about everything

You have to be very skilled in this industry. I grew in this industry we created the very beginnings of this industry. We made the first PCs (personal computers) in the world.

The audience will make you feel like a demigod. But when you leave the stage, get back to being human.

Education begins at home and I applaud the parents who recognize that they - not someone else - must take responsibility to assure that their children are well educated.

To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control.

The progress has to start now.

A Darwinian nation of economic fitness abhors idleness, dependence, non-productivity.

If you become a monk because it's an easy life, because you're going to be fed, and sheltered and people will respect you, then that is not a very meritorious motivation.

I had always wanted to go to the Navy. As a young kid, I was intrigued by a Naval Officer with the beautiful brown shoes and sharp gold wings.

We do not attend to the advice of the sage and experienced because we think they are old, forgetting that they once were young and placed in the same situations as ourselves.

Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.