The problem isn't so much finding good ideas (there is no shortage) as embedding the ones we have into everyday practice.

Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains.

We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.

Maturity: knowing where you're crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control.

In the oasis complex, the thirsty man images he sees water, palm trees, and shade not because he has evidence for the belief, but because he has a need for it. Desperate needs bring about a hallucination of their solution: thirst hallucinates water, the need for love hallucinates a prince or princess. The oasis complex is never a complete delusion: the man in the desert does see something on the horizon. It is just that the palms have withered, the well is dry, and the place is infected with locusts.

All tours are filled with humiliation. My publisher once hired a private jet to fly me to a venue where 1,000 people were waiting. It almost bankrupted him.

Politics is so difficult, it's generally only people who aren't quite up to the task who feel convinced they are.