Pain is truth; all else is subject to doubt.

Denunciations of the manipulativeness of advertisers can unfortunately all too easily be turned on their heads into denunciations of the gullibility of consumers. Both are forms of scapegoating, neither accomplishes anything.

Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?

It gets harder all the time, Bev Shaw once said. Harder, yet easier. One gets used to things getting harder; one ceases to be surprised that what used to be hard as hard can be grows harder yet.

I want to find a way of speaking to fellow human beings that will be cool rather than heated, philosophical rather than polemical, that will bring enlightenment rather than seeking to divide us into the righteous and the sinners, the saved and the damned, the sheep and the goats.

[Hariharan is] an outstanding writer.

I speak to the broken halves of all our selves and tell them to embrace, loving the worst in us equally with the best.