I think miracles exist in part as gifts and in part as clues that there is something beyond the flat world we see.

Loyalty consists of many things, including being truthful with our friends. When you really disagree, you have to say so.

Some of the stupidest brilliant people who ever lived.

Most people aren't appreciated enough, and the bravest things we do in our lives are usually known only to ourselves. No one throws ticker tape on the man who chose to be faithful to his wife, on the lawyer who didn't take the drug money.

Boundaries aren't all bad. That's why there are walls around mental institutions.

one way to keep people close to you is by not giving them enough. ... with people who give a lot of themselves, you sometimes lean back - but with people who give little you often lean forward, as if they're a spigot in the desert and you're the empty cup. It is the tropism of deprivation: We lean toward those who do not give.

My generation, faced as it grew with a choice between religious belief and existential despair, chose marijuana. Now we are in our Cabernet stage.