There is more good writing and good acting in any ten minutes of Twister than in, say, all of Citizen Kane.

Good people aren't good because they never cause harm to others. They're good because they treat others the best way they know how, with the understanding that they have.

If desire did not dim the brain, nobody would ever get married, drunk, or fat. ~Val

Twisted and perverse are the ways of the human mind," Jane intoned. "Pinocchio was such a dolt to try to become a real boy. He was much better off with a wooden head.

Peace. That's what salaam means. Peace unto you." The words brought forth an echo from Ender's memory. His mother's voice reading to him softly, when he was very young. ... The kiss, the word, the peace were with him still. I am only what I remember, and Alai is my friend in a memory so intense that they can't tear him out. Like Valentine, the strongest memory of all.

Every person is defined by the communities she belongs to.

The old tale of Sleeping Beauty might end happily in French or English, but he was in Russia, and only a fool would want to live through the Russian version of any fairy tale.