“What's remarkable about fiction is that it places you in the unusual position of having no trajectory. You stand aside, motives abandoned for the duration. The characters have the trajectories now, while you just observe. And this stirs compassion that, in real life, is so often obscured by our own motives.”

“Your life is a trajectory. Every choice you make alters that trajectory, in a positive or negative way. Will you categorize that dinner with friends as a business expense? Will you be honest with your daughter? Will you take more credit than you’re due? These are just the small questions that we face every day, and little by little, the answers influence the trajectory of our lives and beings.”

“motivation alone is not enough.if you have an idiot and you motivate him,now you have a motivated idiot.”

“If you can spend enough time playing other people, you don't have to think too much about your own character motivations.”

“when your life trajectory is irreparably altered, you often find you can’t go back to the person you were.”

“It is not an easy thing to alter the trajectory of your life. People have expectations on your behalf. You come to believe them yourself.”