My father wasn’t around when I was a kid, and I used to always say, ‚Why me? Why don’t I have a father? Why isn’t he around? Why did he leave my mother?‘ But as I got older I looked deeper and thought, ‚I don’t know what my father was going through, but if he was around all the time, would I be who I am today?‘

Self-talk, for me, has been the biggest thing in my life. A lot of us have a dialogue that is crap. It’s a crappy dialogue. We live in a world right now that is very external. Everything is very on the surface. Superficial. Everything. And what we’re telling ourselves is what we see on TV.

Fear is exciting for me.

Remember happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.

I have always marched to my own beat, and most frequently, it was inconsistent not only with my own immediate family, but with my culture as well.

It started to weigh on me that I was responsible for the moves that had made me successful, but I wasn’t reaping the lion’s share of the profits, and that was problematic for me.

I had the classic 40 meltdown. I did. It’s embarrassing. It was pretty funny. But then I recovered. To me, it was like a second adolescence. Hormonally, my body was changing, my mind was changing, and so my relationship to myself and the world around me came to this assault of finiteness.

One must marry one’s feelings to one’s beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one’s life.

If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.

Perhaps I can say that I am a bit astute, that I can adapt to circumstances, but it is also true that I am a bit naive. Yes, but the best summary, the one that comes more from the inside and I feel most true is this: I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.

I was willing to accept what I couldn’t change.

I always put myself out there. I’m not afraid to commit to something.

Learning about climate change triggered my depression in the first place. But it was also what got me out of my depression, because there were things I could do to improve the situation. I don’t have time to be depressed anymore.

Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image.

You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?

It is normal to give away a little of one’s life in order not to lose it all.

I’m just hoping that people understand that Islam is peace and not violence.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

The way up and the way down are one and the same.

I am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

Encouragement to others is something everyone can give. Somebody needs what you have to give. It may not be your money; it may be your time. It may be your listening ear. It may be your arms to encourage. It may be your smile to uplift. Who knows?

I tried being reasonable, I didn’t like it.

Before the effect one believes in different causes than one does after the effect.

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital.

I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.

I’m trying to keep a level head. You have to be careful out in the world. It’s so easy to get turned.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

I often advocate that we look at many sides of an issue, walk in someone else’s shoes, and identify and reject false choices.

No one but a fool is always right.

Every loss of life is terrible.

Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

I never had a speech from my father ‚this is what you must do or shouldn’t do‘ but I just learned to be led by example. My father wasn’t perfect.

Few women, I fear, have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.

I’m kind of fascist with myself, you know.

For me, I used to be shy towards journalism because it wasn’t poetry. And then I realized that the events that I covered in essays that became journalism were actually great because they inspired me, and they became my muse.

If you would judge, understand.

You may make some mistakes – but that doesn’t make you a sinner. You’ve got the very nature of God on the inside of you.

Some people carry their heart in their head and some carry their head in their heart. The trick is to keep them apart yet working together.

If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.

I have met 18 million youth, and each wants to be unique.

Real living is living for others.

I never deny. I never contradict. I sometimes forget.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.

I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?

There are some Christian people who taste and see and enjoy religion in their own souls, and who get at a deeper knowledge of it than books can ever give them, though they should search all their days.

Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn’t a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

I was a chemistry major, but I’m always winding up as a teacher in English departments, so I’ve brought scientific thinking to literature. There’s been very little gratitude for this.

When I look back over my life it’s almost as if there was a plan laid out for me – from the little girl who was so passionate about animals who longed to go to Africa and whose family couldn’t afford to put her through college. Everyone laughed at my dreams. I was supposed to be a secretary in Bournemouth.

I always joke that my kids‘ favorite holiday is Father’s Day. They love the way I celebrate the occasion by writing each of them a thank-you letter and a generous check. It’s my way of letting them know how much I appreciate the great pleasure and privilege of being their dad.

People can try to reinvent themselves. I don’t think you can really change who you are, though, because who you are is pretty much where you came from and what you’ve done up to now.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more.