The stories are not autobiographical, but they’re personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I’ve learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal.

The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

The word ‚belief‘ is a difficult thing for me. I don’t believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it – I don’t need to believe it.

The question of sexual dominance can exist only in the nightmare of that soul which has armed itself, totally, against the possibility of the changing motion of conquest and surrender, which is love.

I’ve never professed to be anything but an average student.

I’ve always been really, really aware of my insecurities – really, really aware. I never developed that thick skin that keeps you from letting things get to you.

Don’t make me into this airy-fairy, moralist, idealist because I’m not.

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.

My dad seemed comfortable with his decision to be a ‚have-not,‘ but I knew that I wasn’t.

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.

Doing graphic novels is cool! It’s fun! You get to write something, and then see it visually page by page, panel by panel, working with the artist, you get to see it fleshed out.

I’m never a reliable narrator, unbiased or objective.

America is becoming so educated that ignorance will be a novelty. I will belong to the select few.

It’s human nature to blame someone else for your shortcomings or upsets.

I’m stupid, I’m ugly, I’m dumb, I smell. Did I mention I’m stupid?

But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.

We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.

Films and television and even comic books are churning out vast quantities of fictional narratives, and the public continues to swallow them up with great passion. That is because human beings need stories.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning.

In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

Coaching wouldn’t be for me. No, certainly not.

Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn’t.

I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I’ll go for the gross-out. I’m not proud.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

Man’s unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain’t ashamed of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a month?

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

Narrow your life down to this moment. Your life situation may be full of problems – most life situations are – but find out if you have a problem at this moment. Do you have a problem now?

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.

I’m half-black, half-white, so I basically put it like this: I can fit in anywhere. That’s why I write so many stories from so many different perspectives, because I’ve seen so many.

I have never felt more confident in myself, more clear on who I am as a woman. But I am constantly thinking about my own health and making sure that I’m eating right and getting exercise and watching the aches and pains. I want to be this really fly 80-90-year old.

We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives… inside ourselves.

Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.

Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not ‚yours,‘ not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that comes and goes is you.

Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.

I can’t play bridge. I don’t play tennis. All those things that people learn, and I admire, there hasn’t seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out the window.

Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.

No one even knows one percent of the fabulous history of Man; but thanks to history, we know about occurrences that go beyond the limits of the imaginable.

You’re not going to say anything about me that I’m not going to say about myself. There’s so many things that I think about myself; if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I’m going to say it before they can. It’s the best policy for me.

Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.

We think too much and feel too little.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

I’ve learned people are watching, so don’t do nothing stupid.

Knowledge is power.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

I feel you’re in charge of your own situation.

Is fear preventing you from taking action? Acknowledge the fear, watch it, take your attention into it, be fully present with it. Doing so cuts the link between the fear and your thinking. Don’t let the fear rise up into your mind. Use the power of the Now. Fear cannot prevail against it.

I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

Certainly, if you look at human behavior around the world, you have to admit that we can be very aggressive.

Be content to seem what you really are.

If you’re embarrassed because you have some notion about how men are supposed to behave, and it doesn’t include weeping, then you have some personal work to do.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

When I write, I try to become different characters.