Tragedy was a big social event, and everyone wanted in on it.

I leapt eagerly into books. The characters’ lives were so much more interesting than the lonely heartbeat of my own.

I felt as if I were riding a pendulum. Just as I would swing into the abyss of hopelessness, the pendulum would swing back with some small goodness.

Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness.

Andrius, I'm...scared." He stopped and turned to me. "No. Don't be scared. Don't give them anything Lina, not even your fear.

He threw his burning cigarette onto our clean living room floor and ground it into the wood with his boot. We were about to become cigarettes.

Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy—love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit.

Decisions, they shape our destiny.

A wrongdoing doesn't give us the right to do wrong.

Some things just won’t go away, no matter how hard you scrub.

What do you do with all this bank, Josie? Be a lot easier if you just lifted your skirt.” “The only reason I’d lift my skirt is to pull out my pistol and plug you in the head.

Every nation, every woman and every man must work out their own salvation.

Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none

Imagining someone else's pain with too much surety can be as damaging as failing to imagine it.

I always just want to move along to the next step.

Make health care a right, not a privilege.

I still have nightmares of dead comrades, a long time ago, talking to me. 'Emmanuel, don't forget about us, don't give up, keep telling our story.'

I'm not one of those that can see the cat in the dairy and wonder what she's there for.

For the greater good, I thought I should be a spiritual leader for people for some reason.

Growing up takes longer than you think.

I might do something in Arabic. I might do something in Hebrew.