I want to be a good human being. I'm doing my best, and I'm working at it.

Nothing will work unless you do.

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. Please remember that your difficulties do not define you. They simply strengthen your ability to overcome.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style

If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!

The more we surrender to what cannot be, the better we control what can be.

Happiness is your own treasure because it lies within you.

Old is unwanted. You don't find Thais going to the thrift store. They want new clothes. They want the newest cell phone.

With the year off, I think most guys were excited to get going, but coming to Ottawa, a new place, made me even more excited.

When I wrote The Virgin Suicides, I gave myself very strict rules about the narrative voice: the boys would only be able to report what they had seen or found or what had been told to them.

I mean, whose songs don't focus on tragedy and loss?

There was something about being in front of audiences when I was in elementary school plays that gave me a thrill. It was like the rush you get from a roller coaster drop.

I've grown so much as a person through playing Gabrielle, much less living in New Zealand and being with all of these people that I can't imagine my life being any different.

It's dangerous to read the Internet about yourself when you're me. Or when you're anyone in the public eye.

Congress is going to start tinkering with the Ten Commandments just as soon as they find someone in Washington who has read them.