You get closer to your own humanity by understanding the stories of other people and the struggles they have.

It's really hard when you read literature in a language that's not your own. There are all these cultural references you have to be born into that particular language to get.

For me, the more I understand the story of others, the greater I am able to learn and help other people.

Sometimes the mere connection we make with each other can change people's lives. It doesn't have to be something big. The mere fact that you're interested in them makes them happy.

I think every person has a unique story to tell and we each have the different life events that happen to us and sometimes we may feel sympathetic toward a certain aspect of that life event.

It's hard to choose the right word, the right line. This Body Mystery is a small book, but it took me over ten years.

I tried to write poems in rhyme. I tried writing songs. Sometimes I jotted down a thought. I would keep a log of spontaneous thoughts.

I read a lot when I was in school in the United States, and even though writing in English is very difficult for me, I wrote in journals.

Art is really about how you capture different things you see around you and bring them into forms and words and shapes and meaning.

You have to experiment with different mediums and things around you [making art].

This is my first collaboration [with Mary Hamill] so I'm going to learn how it's going to work.

However bad life may seem, where there is life, there is hope.

The cause of every anomaly can be found in woman.

Every lawyer shall tell his or her client that becoming involved with the legal system is like three years of experimental chemotherapy, one hundred percent guaranteed not to work.

When men grow virtuous in their old age they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.

When an author is yet living we estimate his powers by his worst performance and when he is dead we rate them by his best.

My whole background is theater, and theater is to some degree presentational.

Once journalists have been rifling through your dustbins, you do try and keep them at arms' length.

I really love the traditional aspects of Judaism. My wife is born and raised a Catholic and I enjoy celebrating those rituals as well. I am very spiritual but not in any way religious, no.

I like to say there's certain things you can't take back: One of them is 'I love you,' and one of them is bullets.

Yoga always made me feel really good about myself.