"God is not upset that Gandhi was not a Christian, because God is not a Christian! All of God's children and their different faiths help us to realize the immensity of God."

"We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low."

"Inclusive, good-quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies."

"I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum."

"The river of time washes away kings and empires, leaving only virtue intact. This remains the cornerstone of personal mastery."

"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."

"I was a bartender for a long time, so I know how to make drinks, but I'm more likely to offer them than to have them. I think this is one of the reasons why I get to live longer than my great-grandmother did, and why I get to produce more writing than she did, and why my marriage isn't in dire straits."

"When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity."