The fact of being alive compensated for what life did to one.

The lessons one learns at school are not always the ones the school thinks it's teaching.

Writers have an opinion about the world and offer arguments about the world. They should offer contemplation.

I think the book is less emotional than the film. With the film, the emotions are much more raw and in front. In the book, they are kind of ironized and seen through comedy.

That's the trouble with you sad-city types: a place has to be miserable and dull as ditchwater before you believe it's real.

Five mysteries hold the keys to the unseen: the act of love, and the birth of a baby, and the contemplation of great art, and being in the presence of death or disaster, and hearing the human voice lifted in song.

Reality is a question of perspective.