I wasted a lot of years working on my writing and very grandly saying, 'And now... My Novel!,' which would soon be reduced to a short story, then to a paragraph.

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.

It's failure that gives you the proper perspective on success.

A woman's sense of self and power should come not from the number of heads she can turn, but rather from the minds and hearts she can turn.

Tragedies break us, yet sometimes they make us.

Too often man handles life as he does the bad weather. He whiles away the time as he waits for it to stop.

There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.

If you think that material success will bring you happiness, relationships, people, places, things, fame, fortune, you definitely should not practice tantra.

Only against death does man cry out in vain.

Never lose your child's heart.

Brittany and I don't date other people." "Why not?" "It's called being boyfriend and girlfriend.

Blind don't mean you can't, you know, listen.