“Even if you forget everything else I want you to always remember that you are a person of value, and you have a friend who loved you enough to give you his most valued possession.”

Experiencing life through a book can help you learn without all the pain of going through the experiences first hand.

And marking off time struck me as something like counting empty spaces-spaces you know can’t ever be filled.

When people’s emotions are involved they don’t want to listen.

I love Arkansas but I think Arkansas has its share of unlit minds.

The world is not a rational place.

Like the Bible tells us, when a man will lay down his life for a friend, well, then there ain’t no greater love in this here world than that.

Look inside yourself and you’ll find a world of things (a world of your own experiences)worth writing about.

It seems to me that a man who is incapable of humor is capable of cruelty.

I believe that love is better than hate. And that there is more nobility in building a chicken coop than in destroying a cathedral.

Maybe…in a way, this coffee reminds me of something. Maybe…maybe only a philosopher or a mad man would make this connection, but it’s a little like life. I mean it’s powerful going down and that doesn’t even take into account the aftertaste, which really takes getting used to.

A person’s got to think, otherwise that person’s no better than a trained seal balancing a ball on his nose. If only that seal could think, he’d know he was making a thousand children laugh.

Keep in mind that life produces no maestros, only students of varying shades of ineptitude.

What is genius, anyway, if it isn’t the ability to give an adequate response to a great challenge?

I was hooked on writing. I mean, where else can you get paid for sticking your nose into somebody else’s business?

What do you know about sooner or later? Is a moment only a moment when you’re in pain?

Why is it I’m always so quick to believe that people are thinking…believing the worst about me?

Read, read read. Read everything.

We have been told to ask about everything: Will it leave us free?

There are those who argue that everything breaks even in this old dump of a world of ours.

Everything you say and do is having an impact on others.

I am Syrian, I was made in Syria, I have to live in Syria and die in Syria.

We pretend that everything that has happened happened long ago, and then we act as if we all now just treat each other equally, everything will be fine.

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.

Put in hours and hours of planning, figure everything down to the last detail, then what? Burglar alarms start going off all overthe place for no sensible reason.