“Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it.”

“Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.”

“Our country in general assumes that "the pursuit of happiness" really means "the pursuit of pleasure" and that therefore pleasure is the greatest good.”

“Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. - Mrs. Whatsit”

“The unending paradox is that we do learn through pain.”

“Come t'e' picciol fallo amaro morso! Dante. What grievous pain a little fault doth give thee!”

“--So we reached our decisions simultaneously, and apart, and if I knew that Court was fighting a battle, did he, too, sense mine? Did it have anything to do with his coming back to life again? For ...”

“One thing I have discovered since I've been ill, though, is that nobody ever knows anybody, and maybe least of all the people who are closest to them. Sort of a business of not being able to see th...”

“Why does anybody do anything?" Mimi asked impatiently. "Most of the time we don't know--any of us.”

“Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

“The American system is the most ingenious system of control in world history. With a country so rich in natural resources, talent, and labor power the system can afford to distribute just enough we...”

“But the truth is that I never had to search for a role model. I was the son of George Bush.”