Superhero movies and comic books teach a lesson that runs directly counter to the culture-of-violence idea: guns are for bad guys too cowardly to fight like men.

Quiet people have the loudest minds.

Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

The water was glassy and calm, still candy-colored in the afterglow of sunset.

A life without love is like a tree without fruit.

The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

Outside, daylight was bleeding slowly toward dusk.

You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.

The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there... and still on your feet.

With our thoughts we make the world.

Piety, then, is that which is dear to the gods, and impiety is that which is not dear to them.

No matter how long it takes to heal...we share the same scars...

I want to be able to look my daughter's teacher in the eye and say, 'Your pension will be there.' I need to know that her pension will match up with a promise we can keep.

I initially felt shy about doing painting because I wasn't a professional painter. I almost felt like I didn't deserve to paint. But I have gradually adopted a different kind of attitude about this.

Diplomacy has more to do with (credible) threats than with sweet reason. And threats from America are a lot more credible, nowadays.

I think I sound like Barry White.

All tyranny, bigotry, aggression, and cruelty are wrong, and whenever we see it, we must never be silent.

Tonglen is a way for you to be with people who need you - beginning with yourself.

A party is perpetually corrupted by personality.