I think a book that is over 400 pages should be split in two. I don't know that there's anything that interesting that can go on for 700 pages. I think that is a little bit indulgent.

What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion.

You know, you can steel your heart against any kind of trouble, any kind of horror. But the simple act of kindness from a complete stranger will unstitch you.

In this time of the Internet and nonfiction, to be on an actual bookshelf in an actual bookstore is exciting in itself.

What we know about who we are comes from stories. It's the agents of our imagination who really shape who we are.

The privilege of being a writer is that you have this opportunity to slow down and to consider things.

People think that writing is writing, but actually writing is editing. Otherwise, you're just taking notes

My friend Ronald Gottesman says...that the cause of all our trouble is the belief in an essential, pure identity: religious, ethnic, historical, ideological.

You can count on Scandinavian literature for a certain kind of darkness, a modern mythic style.

Men do communicate, often very directly, but women sometimes cannot accept how simple what we have to say is. We seldom play games--we aren't that sophisticated.

Before you speak, my friend, remember, a spiritual man contain his anger. Angry words are like slap in de face.

There are some things you must understand and discover for yourself. And after discovering them, start living accordingly

Everyone needs beauty. Even beautiful people"From "Central Park Song

I've never thought my speeches were too long I've rather enjoyed them.

A still small voice spake unto me, 'Thou art so full of misery, Were it not better not to be?

Quotations are feeble; you always regret making them.

Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

I have pushed virtue to outright brutality.

I'm so tired of waiting, aren't you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind?

Civilizations proceed from the heart rather than from the head.

To play 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer.