“-though sometimes it seems to mention a man who simply acts like a decent human being gets undue praise”

“I do not need the written code of a spiritual belief to act like a decent human being.”

“It seemed like an original act, the very kindest act of being human, that he listened.”

“And though he has watched a decent age pass by, a man will sometimes still desire the world.”

“I think the act of reading imbues the reader with a sensitivity toward the outside world that people who don't read can sometimes lack. I know it seems like a contradiction in terms; after all reading is such a solitary, internalizing act that it appears to represent a disengagement from day-to-day life. But reading, and particularly the reading of fiction, encourages us to view the world in new and challenging ways...It allows us to inhabit the consciousness of another which is a precursor to empathy, and empathy is, for me, one of the marks of a decent human being.”

“It is as though they simply cannot contemplate the notion of a short, slight man who dresses and moves like a popular (mis)conception of a homosexual being attractive to millions of women.”