As for "toothy kindness" - I think all traditions are full of this sort of tough kindness. If someone is on a wrong or dull path, and someone else startles them into awareness of that, then that's a blessing. And the method by which the startle is obtained might be anger, or satire, or an intentionally applied indifference. But that is, of course, a fine line.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.

Every step was a victory. He had to remember that.

I was thinking about the legacy of ghosts in fiction, and specifically the moral power of those Dickensian ghosts. Because a ghost can be a very powerful but also manipulative element.

Equality has always been extant but some of us just didn't know it.

I try to keep my artistic opinions not so much "to myself" but "on myself."

The idea of inclusion has become kind of a stone that we've passed our hand over so many times that it doesn't mean anything.