I try to take people one at a time, with all the contradictions and compromises that most of us live with.

Commencement speeches were invented largely in the belief that outgoing college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated.

America: the only country in the world where failing to promote yourself is regarded as being arrogant.

I'm still passionately interested in what my fellow humans are up to. For me, a day spent monitoring the passing parade is a day well-spent.

Most writers seem to prefer the morning, or they feel at their best in the morning. Ideas are popping into your head while you're in the shower. And that's true for me, as well.

Isn't it possible that self-esteem isn't causal at all, but simply the happy side effect of a sturdy character, itself the product of unambiguous moral education?

Lives have been altered in fundamental ways, and later, after they acquire a more complete understanding of what goals are actually attainable, many are left facing a lot of pain and frustration. And yet, there's no culture of complaint.