“While I hate to ever lose a supporter, I've come to realize that one who would abandon me over a single statement or decision I made is a person who would abandon me sooner or later anyway.”

“It will be like having an extreme close-up in high definition to examine each freckle, while failing to notice whether the person is even wearing pants.”

“Don't let the culture influence your message, let your message influence the culture.”

“True faith is forged in the furnace, not the showroom.”

“The most powerful demonstration of leadership is not a clenched fist of brute force but an open hand of humble assistance.”

“I was doing an interview with someone who had done very interesting profiles on some of America's greatest authors, and I noticed a trend emerge. So many of America's greatest writers, J.D. Salinger or Thomas Pynchon, for example, were eccentric, reclusive types. I thought a story that showed how someone helped a great writer break through the barrier of isolation and re-enter the world would make a terrific story. It struck me that it would be even more interesting if the person who brings the writer out is someone young--a teenager, for example--who is also in some way gifted.”

“War can condition a person to be resilient, tolerant, dependable, strong, and capable of so much more than one who had experienced nothing of it; it can bring out the very best in us, but also the very worst. Where is it, I ask, the proper conduit through which a soldier should be raised from whence they would become an upstanding citizen of the world, instead of a single country?”