When people can do something simple to avoid conflict--say, hit a button or unlock a latch--they'll generally do it.

There's no original evil left in the world. Everyone's just recycling pain. (257)

Sometimes when you push someone, you find out who that person really is.

For a psychiatrist to be any good, he has to be willing to corner you, close off the easy exits, even when it hurts. It's supposed to. (46)

People blush when one of their core truths is revealed.

We are, all of us, crippled and twisted. Most of us strive desperately to keep our grotesqueries out of sight and mind. Our suffering is transformed by an alchemy of the soul into addiction, ulcers, strokes, hatred, even war.

The roots of any evil deed can be traced to the perpetrator's refusal to experience pain.