I think this is the other big issue that is not going away: Do we really believe that bit in the Constitution or not? I think we do.

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 don't need anything to get high. I'm high on life.

When we walk in the sunour shadows are like barges of silence.

This, he knew, was courage, the truest, ultimate courage, because there was no one here to sympathize or praise him for it. What he felt was felt without the hope of commendation.

I tend to pull nuggets out of many books - rather than having a handful of books that serve as guiding lights.

The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt.

You never really know what the director has got in his mind as far as the scene visually and art direction wise.

Evander Holyfield's a great fighter, I watched him when I was a kid, I love the guy, but I had to do what I had to do. It's what I get paid to do.

The best prayer I ever prayed had enough sin to damn the whole world.

I could just have chips and salsa for dinner every day.

The Plus Factor makes its appearance in a person's life in proportion as that person is in harmony with God and His universal laws.