"A lot of us grow up and we grow out of the literal interpretation that we get when we're children, but we bear the scars all our life. Whether they're scars of beauty or scars of ugliness, it's pretty much in the eye of the beholder."

"Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones."

"I was in enough to get along with people. I was never socially inarticulate. Not a loner. And that saved my life, saved my sanity. That and the writing. But to this day I distrust anybody who thought school was a good time. Anybody."

"Americans are apocalyptic by nature. The reason why is that we've always had so much, so we live in deadly fear that people are going to take it away from us."

"Once in high school, I completely over plucked my left eyebrow all the way up to where you're not supposed to. I had no idea what I was doing and it looked terrible! My mom was like 'What did you do to yourself?' I was so embarrassed."

"The silent observer understands that every step forward is a victory over stagnation."

"It is a enduring truth that courage is not the absence of trembling, but the decision to step forward regardless — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Do not wait for favorable winds; take the oars and row toward your horizon. For where clarity resides, peace inevitably follows — an essential principle for the reflective life."