“I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence.”

I don’t understand how any good art could fail to be political.

Fiction and essays can create empathy for the theoretical stranger.

Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature.

Downstream is always someone else’s up.

Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long run. The daily work – that goes on, it adds up.

The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.

The loudest sound on earth, she thought, is a man with nothing to do.

I do my best work if I think about what it is I have to offer.

Vengeance does not subtract any numbers from the equation of murder; it only adds them.

It is harrowing for me to try to teach 20-year-old students, who earnestly want to improve their writing. The best I can think to tell them is: Quit smoking, and observe posted speed limits. This will improve your odds of getting old enough to be wise.

What keeps me awake at the wheel is the thrill of trying something completely new with each book. I’m not a risk-taker in life, generally speaking, but as a writer I definitely choose the fast car, the impossible rock face, the free fall.

…our best task is to move forward without insisting others slide backward.

Like kids who only ever get socks for Christmas, but still believe with all their hearts in Santa.

…nothing momentous comes in this world unless it comes on the shoulders of kindness.

This is what it means to be alone: everyone is connected to everyone else, their bodies are a bright liquid life flowing around you, sharing a single heart that drives them to move all together. If the shark comes they will all escape, and leave you to be eaten.

Be still, and the world is bound to turn herself inside out to entertain you. Everywhere you look, joyful noise is clanging to drown out quiet desperation.

With writing, I can express myself, really, and share my ideas and just let my thoughts flow out.

When you’re learning, you’re burning – putting out a lot of heat.

I felt like I had kind of played it out, and I wanted to see what was next, and then came Mythbusters.

It’s a lot easier to get in and out of a bath. Hot tubs are bad news for actors, man.

In all fairness, you should point out the difference.

My first reaction was to ring him up. Then I remembered he was out there playing.

And you can constantly look back when you’re in some sort of fix and say, “Well, on so-and-so film, we did this, and it worked out fine.”

Just keep putting out music.