I'm insatiably curious about human nature. I feel very lucky that as a writer I get to learn so much about it just to do my job right.

Your tendency to be inward-directed or outward-directed is huge; it governs every part of the way you live and work and love.

Solve problems, make art, think deeply.

Evangelicalism has taken the Extrovert Ideal to its logical extreme...If you don't love Jesus out loud, then it must not be real love. It's not enough to forge your own spiritual connection to the divine; it must be displayed publicly.

Some introverts are perfectly comfortable with public speaking; I'm not one of them.

Any time people come together in a meeting, we're not necessarily getting the best ideas; we're just getting the ideas of the best talkers.

I had always imagined Rosa Parks as a stately woman with a bold temperament, someone who could easily stand up to a busload of glowering passengers. But when she died in 2005 at the age of ninety-two, the flood of obituaries recalled her as soft-spoken, sweet, and small in stature. They said she was "timid and shy" but had "the courage of a lion." They were full of phrases like "radical humility" and "quiet fortitude.