It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.

Being in the pulpit, was like being in the theatre; I was behind the scenes and knew how the illusion worked.

If you think too far ahead, if you even try to think too far ahead, you'll never make it.

I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

For nothing is fixed, forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

It is perfectly possible to be enamoured of Paris while remaining totally indifferent or even hostile to the French.

You know, it's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.