“Most of you guys can't see the potential in a nervous breakdown. A real collapse. There's more chance of finding yourself in a major depression than there is in a bottle Prozac.”

“The good guys had to operate on a higher level than the killers--just for society to keep track of who was who.”

“Most children would rather preserve the fantasy of a loving connection with their fathers and mothers, at all costs, even if it costs them their self-esteem. When you're three or seven years old, it's less frightening to think of yourself as an unlovable, disappointing screwup than to recognize the fact that you're living with a monster.”

“But insight doesn't necessarily produce self-control. Sometimes you just see your destructiveness more clearly.”

“You've got to think of every talent you have, every gift you could give the world around you. And you've got to take the chance of giving it. (246)”

“I shook my head at all the things that can happen to break a man as he grows up and away from the pure potential of infancy, all the things that had fractured inside me. And I prayed silently that this infant, born into chaos, might meet with kindness, experience joy and find passion in life. Every one of us ought to be able to count on that much. (308)”

“Relationships are never chance events.”