The search for happiness has long been a dominant feature of American life. It's a byproduct of prosperity, not to mention the most famous line in the Declaration of Independence.

I've always been interested in tht notion of what is authentic and how we define that and why our culture imposes certain emotions and emotional constraints onto experiences.

We've never been in a time where mothers - parenthood, but particularly motherhood - is so fetishized.

Being in the entertainment industry in L.A. is the equivalent to being in the publishing industry in New York. You don't ever have to hangout with anybody else.

What amazes me is when I see people in their twenties who have families or live a life that seems of a much older person. But that's such a demographic, a socio-economic, cultural, class thing.

There may well be a few extremists out there somewhere calling for a militant, women-only utopia, but why should this be the definition of 'feminist' when it's already the definition of 'silly'?

Novelty has a way of intensifying memory. The less often you do something, the deeper the memory burrows in.

Life is mostly an exercise in being something other than what we used to be while remaining fundamentally — and sometimes maddeningly — who we are.

In the history of the world, a whole story has never been told.

My goal in life is to be content. By that I don't mean "fine" or "basically satisfied." I don't mean settling. I mean, for last of better terms, feeling like I'm in the right life.

At some point in my early forties I realized that my primary goal in just about any verbal exchange is to lighten the mood.

Fight, Zinnia, for your soul. You only have one, and one shall remain once you've escaped his clutches... Do not give up on yourself, for strength... it comes... from God.

To fornicate is to aspire to enter into another

In the final analysis, you always get paid for your results.

A heart isn't some revolving door where a bunch of people can go in and out.

Defeating human trafficking is a great moral calling of our time...

I think it's better if blokes can admit that they can have crushes on other blokes. I've probably had crushes but never really sexual crushes on men.

Being ill like this combines shock - this time I will die - with a pain and agony that are unfamiliar, that wrench me out of myself.

Old reference books are like tree rings. Without them, there'd be no way to know what a tree had lived through.

I am such a big fan of Batman.

I believe in fighting with investors to reduce the amount of equity they get and then being as generous as you possibly can with employees.