“People's lives can look so good on the outside and be so much dark shadow on the inside.”

“Complete happiness can look so much like complete terror that its hard to tell them apart.”

“It was as if the story had been added to, so as not to disgust people too much.”

“Nobody stopped believing that other people were more guilty than they were. Why do people have so much trouble seeing their own faults but such an easy time seeing everyone else's?”

“Problem with the big philosophers is they cared about ideas more than people. Hegel would probably have stepped over a guy trying to slit his wrists outside a bar — to get to all the people he could sit and bullshit with inside. Did you know half of philosophy was first put into words by people shot in the ass?”

“Life is a journey, and I may not have always lived up to my ability, but I have always lived purposefully, and I guess readers get caught up with me, raising the questions, looking for the answers, looking to be a little more understanding, a little less judgmental, a little more merciful. I hope so.”

“People love to see you get ahead — so long as you don't get farther ahead than they are.”