Other than life experience, nothing left a deeper imprint on my formative self than the movies.

Apathy is the self-defense of the powerless.

Control is a big issue when you're sick. It's the first thing you lose - other losses come later.

Illness is the proving ground of friendship.

Friends seem to be like aspirin; we don't really know why they make a sick person feel better, but they do.

Much is made of the accelerating brutality of young people's crimes, but rarely does our concern for dangerous children translateinto concern for children in danger. We fail to make the connection between the use of force on children themselves, and violent antisocial behavior, or the connection between watching father batter mother and the child deducing a link between violence and masculinity.

When the president of the United States flicks the switch to light up the Christmas tree on the White House lawn, that house ceases to be an American symbol; it becomes a Christian symbol.