I like that kind of thing. I like warmth and uncalled-for kindness, the small unnoticed generosities that speckle the meanness of the world.

Some people use their own hurt as an excuse for hurting others

If Christ's message could be distilled down to one line, that line would have to do with kindness and inclusiveness, not rules and divisiveness.

The past shouts at you, the ugly words or actions echo down across the years.

What difference makes what you believe? What happens will happen anyway, exactly the same, no matter what you believe. What you do makes the important part. What you do.

...if we somehow find the courage to go directly into the discomfort - even the discomfort of illness, pain, old age, and death - we might discover something unexpected there.

With two teenagers in the house, we sometimes experience a degree of domestic turbulence that sounds, to my ear, like a boiling teakettle filled with hormones shrieking on a stove.

Simply by being your absolute, most genuine self in every interaction of every hour, you provide a great and rare service on this earth.

Fear manifested itself as a physical presence that seemed to dominate the public sphere. Time almost stopped. Even without confirmation I could sense that something had gone terribly wrong.

the world had ended, so why had the battle not ceased

Your father used to say "Never give away your work. People don't value what they don't have to pay for."

I don't like trends. They tend to make everybody look the same.

Never mind a little dirt, if the goal is splendid!

The man is best served who has no occasion to put the hands of others at the end of his own arms.

The Vice Presidency isn't worth a pitcher of warm spit.

I do better on the first three takes; I won't be better at 20 takes.

Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love. In the depths there is a spring with all the water your heart is thirsty for.

Whatever I'm working on, I get excited. It does not matter whether I have done the same piece many times. I still can't wait to get out to the shop in the morning.