“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.”

I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.

I do much of my creative thinking while golfing. If people know you’re working at home they think nothing of walking in for a cup of coffee, but wouldn’t dream of interrupting on the golf course.

Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?

Everybody’s gotta learn, nobody’s born knowing.

Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screeneed porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape.

I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.

Sometimes the Bible in the hands of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hands of another.

But before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself.

You can’t really get to know a person until you get in their shoes and walk around in them.

People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.

Serving on a jury forces a man to make up his mind and declare himself about something. Men don’t like to do that. Sometimes it’s unpleasant.

You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl.

You can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family, an’ they’re still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge ’em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don’t.

Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

I’m a very emotional person, a person of real extremes, and that’s often destructive both to me and others.

When we see the Beloved in each person, it’s like walking through a garden, watching flowers bloom all around us.

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

The person you hurt the most doesn’t deserve to be hurt.

The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up the American quilt.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

I feel like, when people realize that they are the only person they need to impress, everybody’s life will be a lot smoother.

In the real world, I kind of, like, thrived a little bit. The things that were awkward about me at school, like being hyper passionate, I realized, ‘Oh I’m my own person, and I have my own idiosyncrasies and nuances that I don’t mind.’