Because depression is so thematically powerful and so dark, when it's very severe, it can make people feel not only as if they've lost a loving connection, but as if the whole world is devoid of love. So if we wonder how somebody could take 149 people with him when he commits suicide, one answer can be that depression, when it's most severe, can make people feel that life is completely without value, not just for them but for anyone.

Most children would rather preserve the fantasy of a loving connection with their fathers and mothers, at all costs, even if it costs them their self-esteem. When you're three or seven years old, it's less frightening to think of yourself as an unlovable, disappointing screwup than to recognize the fact that you're living with a monster.

Relationships are never chance events.

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

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

Plenty of people who survive tragedies end up ambivalent about danger--frightened by it, yet strangely drawn to it.

People react predictably, especially when they don't have time to think.