My mother's death put me in touch with my most savage self. As I've grown up and come to terms with her death and accepted it, the pieces of her that I keep don't exist materially.

You will learn a lot about yourself if you stretch in the direction of goodness, of bigness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of emotional bravery. Be a warrior for love.

What if I was never redeemed? What if I already was?

Don't surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn't true anymore.

Whatever happens to you belongs to you. Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you, because it will.

The story of human intimacy is one of constantly allowing ourselves to see those we love most deeply in a new, more fractured light. Look hard. Risk that.

You have to say I am forgiven again and again until it becomes the story you believe about yourself.

That my complicated life could be made so simple was astounding.

Real love moves freely in both directions. Don't waste your time on anything else.

Be about ten times more magnanimous than you believe yourself capable of. Your life will be a hundred times better for it.

Love is our essential nutrient. Without it, life has little meaning. It's the best thing we have to give and the most valuable thing we receive. It's worthy of all the hullabaloo.

I think the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that's in me should set hell on fire.

Once people get to the promise land, they have to perform miracles by themselves.

If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs.

To see the greatness of a mountain, one must keep one's distance.

It was what we Japanese called the onion life, peeling away a layer at a time and crying all the while.

The minor leagues were great. When you first sign, that is your big leagues.

It is not a matter of wishing success to the victim of aggression, but of sharing his fate; one must accompany him to his death or to victory

Also "Catcher in the Rye", which happens to be one of my favorite books, I just found that kind of useful. It helps you get into the American accent.

There is a powerful desire by majorities to assert a religious identity for the country.

the unfortunate thing about worldliness is that its rewards are rather less than its appetites.