We take our vitamins, we go to exercise class, we put on our seat belts. And then something blindsides us and gives the lie to our carefully constructed facade of safety.

The life you have led doesn't need to be the only life you have.

My father really, really pushed me to excel in a way that I resented for years and then realized had really worked for me.

Wow, so much of the way I've transacted my life... so much of the results that I'm happy about are because of what Daddy did.

Barack Obama presents as kind of a cool character, and I think that that's his natural personality.

I hadn't written a love story before and I hadn't written a novel with a happy ending before.

The Church does an enormous amount of good, and it carries one of the most valuable messages imaginable - that you should love your neighbor as yourself, and that if you have two coats you should give one to the man who has none.