Flattery has a short battery life, but reminding people they are amazing and precious and wanted and works of art can truly change their lives.

Meaning is something we experience more than we attain. It's like finding a nice, easy current in a river that carries you through life.

We don't need as much as we have. Hardly any of us need as much money as we have. It's true what they say about the best things in life being free.

The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: life is a story about me.

I think writers can get a little melodramatic sometimes about their work, and it helps me not to do that, to just say, "Well, this is how I make a living, and I need to become a very good craftsman."

Maybe life isn't meaningless...Maybe just YOUR life is meaningless

It's possible to do both as a writer - to engage and have a family and all that good stuff - and I chose not to for the sake of the career.