All the geniuses I ever met were so just part of the time. To qualify, you only have to be great once, you know. Once when it matters.

For me, writing is more a process of discovering the book than planning it.

Most people go through their whole lives without killing anybody. False argument.

Don't wish to be normal. Wish to be yourself. To the hilt. Find out what you're best at, and develop it, and hopscotch your weaknesses. Wish to be great at whatever you are.

It’s important that someone celebrate our existence," she objected amiably. "People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large. Solitary confinement is a punishment in every human culture.

If you make it plain you like people, it's hard for them to resist liking you back.

The good face pain. But the great? They embrace it.