She had the kind of fingers you want to interlace with your own.
It’s just that I learned a while ago that the best way to get people to like you is not to like them too much.
I think all true stories are hopeful stories. I don’t think there’s any room for nihilism.
The vast majority of us imagine ourselves as like literature people or math people. But the truth is that the massive processor known as the human brain is neither a literature organ or a math organ. It is both and more.
What’s the meaning of life? Other people.
Whenever I’m asked what advice I have for young writers, I always say that the first thing is to read, and to read a lot. The second thing is to write. And the third thing, which I think is absolutely vital, is to tell stories and listen closely to the stories you’re being told.
There’s a stark difference between the words ‘prodigy’ and ‘genius.’ Prodigies can very quickly learn what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn; geniuses do.
I think when you’re 16, if you have good parents, they generally just fade in the background. I had great parents, and because they were great, I thought very little about them in high school.
I don’t think ministering requires a religious context. The number one thing is that every parent is extremely worried about their kid. Of course, when a chaplain shows up, that can exacerbate this worry rather than calm it.
I’m not from Indianapolis, but I like living in Indianapolis. If I were to explain it, I’d tell someone to imagine a city that perfectly captures the best and the worst of America. Imagine the truly American city, because that’s what it is.
The ideas of directing attention outward, trying to imagine other people complexly, trying not to see myself as the center of the universe – these concepts have become important to me, and I hope they’re at work in my life on a minute-by-minute basis.
When we think of death, we often imagine it as happening in degrees: We think of a sick person becoming less and less alive until finally they are gone.
I ran like a cheetah – well, like a cheetah that smoked too much.
The times that were most fun seemed always to be followed by sadness now, because it was when life started to feel like it did when she was with us that we realized how utterly gone she was.
The urge to make art or contemplate philosophy does not go away when you are sick. Those urges just become transfigured by illness.
I always had this idea that you should never give up a happy middle in the hopes of a happy ending, because there is no such thing as a happy ending. Do you know what I mean? There is so much to lose.
It is very sad to me that some people are so intent on leaving their mark on the world that they don’t care if that mark is a scar.
You’re funny, and you’re smart, and you may show up late, but you always show up eventually.
I find it really offensive when people say that the emotional experiences of teenagers are less real or less important than those of adults. I am an adult, and I used to be a teenager, and so I can tell you with some authority that my feelings then were as real as my feelings are now.
Without Pain, How Could We Know Joy?