I think kindness is a sort of gateway virtue - having that simple aspiration can get you into deep water very quickly - in a good way.

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.

Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.

According to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving. Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now.

It's a big world, and I really like it.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.

The generalizing writer is like the passionate drunk, stumbling into your house mumbling: I know I'm not being clear, exactly, but don't you kind of feel what I'm feeling?

Kindness, it turns out, is hard - it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and expands to include . . . well, EVERYTHING.

I cannot fix on the hour or the spot or the look or the words which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.

You make your own party.

Our achievements may make us interesting, Tyler, but our darkness makes us lovable.

I feel like I missed out on the regular high school social life, but that's the way I chose to be.

New ideas require new structures.

To kill your enemy is not a victory; but to make your enemy your friend that is a victory!

The old line 'You deserve someone better than me' in this case was not just an old line. She deserved someone who would love her and take care of her and he knew he never would.

Let us be on the side of those who sit in jails and are sentenced to death for their faith. Let us pray for them and help them.

You can get your money and you put it in the bank, or you can put it in the youth. You can put it in our future.

Imagine the clouds dripping Dig a hole in your garden to put them in