Our sense of what is valuable will hence be radically distorted if we must perpetually condemn as tedious everything we lack, simply because we lack it.

One's doing well if age improves even slightly one's capacity to hold on to that vital truism: "This too shall pass.

We accept the need to train extensively to fly a plane; but think instinct should be enough for marrying and raising kids.

Maturity: the confidence to have no opinions on many things.

There is real danger of a disconnect between what's on your business card and who you are deep inside, and it's not a disconnect that the world is ready to be patient with.

A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to.

We should read other people's books in order to learn what we feel; it is our own thoughts we should be developing, even if it is another writer's thought that help us to do so.