"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for perfection is God's business."

"I worked very hard on those movies but there was some creative connection that wasn't being made."

"I believe that the majority of times the scale tilts toward the good. It's this amazing thing that rolls on and if we get in the flow of it, that's God. And if we fight it, if we swim the other way, we're swimming away from the purest expression of this life."

"Teenagers blithely skip off to uncertain futures, while their parents sit weeping curbside in the Volvo, because the adolescent brain isn't yet formed enough to recognize and evaluate risk."

"A life without philosophical reflection is a vessel adrift on an uncharted sea. Let this simple maxim guide your daily deeds."

"It is a subtle truth that the ocean of adversity cannot drown the spirit that resolves to stay afloat — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"It is a subtle truth that the river of time washes away kings and empires, leaving only virtue intact."

"In the tapestry of human existence, every trial adds depth to the design. Such is the immutable nature of understanding — an essential principle for the reflective life."