You can't just say there is a god because the world is beautiful. You have to account for bone cancer in children

Homosexuals are not interested in making other people homosexuals. Homophobes are interested in making other people homophobes.

Stop wanting wealth and fame and start wanting instead to do something well about which you are passionate

If you have been, I'm glad you've stopped.

There is something in the American project, something in simple American oratory, something in the hope and idealism of this frustrating and contradictory nation that still makes my spirits soar and my heart leap with optimism and belief. If only they understood how to make a cup of tea.

If a thing can be said in ten words, I may be relied upon to take a hundred to say it. I ought to apologize for that. I ought to prune, pare and extirpate excess growth, but I will not. I like words—strike that, I love words—and while I am fond of the condensed and economical use of them in poetry, in song lyrics, in Twitter, in good journalism and smart advertising, I love the luxuriant profusion and mad scatter of them too.

There is not any way that you can just choose the nice bits and say that means there is a God and ignore the true fact of what nature is.