Passion kept one fully in the present, so that time became a series of mutually exclusive 'nows.'

Trust, which is a virtue, is also a habit, like prayer. It requires exercise. And just as no one can run five miles a day and cede the cardiovascular effects to someone else, no one can trust for us.

Though we are made of memories, we live only in the here and now.

It is essential not only to the souls of painters and poets, who thrive in solitude, but to the rest of us, too--individuals whose canvas is our lives.

It is not Sufism if it does not perform its function for you. A cloak is no longer a cloak if it does not keep a man warm.

...[P]hysics... [is] the philosophy of nature, so far as it is based on empirical laws.

Listening to your wife is intelligence

All fiction boils down to two plots: Either a stranger comes to town or someone goes on a trip.

You dream that you want to be a monster maker when you grow up, and that's what happened. I refused to take no for an answer. I just was a very driven kid, who's now a very driven semi-adult.

The best plan is to profit by the folly of others.

I would say, in humanity, there is some unbreakable element that makes us so special, and I would call that hope or a belief in something better. It's something that drives us.

Singapore is a pretty fantastic place, and the race is always a challenge.

Ever have that one friend who gets a Valentine's Day gift for their mother? Doens't that freak you out a little? It's like, 'I don't know how to break this to you but I think she's banging your dad!'

It is easy to ignore responsibility when one is only an intermediate link in a chain of action.