There's no doubt about it: fun people are fun. But I finally learned that there is something more important, in the people you know, than whether they are fun. Thinking about those friends who had given me so much pleasure but who had also caused me so much pain, thinking about that bright, cruel world to which they'd introduced me, I saw that there's a better way to value people. Not as fun or not fun, or stylish or not stylish, but as warm or cold, generous or selfish. People who think about others and people who don't. People who know how to listen, and people who only know how to talk.

But it is not the job of truth to make us feel good. It is the job of truth to be true, and it is our job to deal with it.

We proceed by doubt, by trial and error, by resisting the impulse to lunge after certainty.

There's no doubt about it: fun people are fun. But I finally learned that there is something more important, in the people you know, than whether they are fun. Thinking about those friends who had given me so much pleasure but who had also caused me so much pain, thinking about that bright, cruel world to which they'd introduced me, I saw that there's a better way to value people. Not as fun or not fun, or stylish or not stylish, but as warm or cold, generous or selfish. People who think about others and people who don't. People who know how to listen, and people who only know how to talk.

People’s stories are the most personal thing they have, and paying attention to those stories is just about the most important thing you can do for them.

Posting information is like pornography, a slick, impersonal exhibition.

If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts.