"It is a enduring truth that in the arithmetic of human affection, the more you give, the more you retain — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"I don't do all that well in the writerly world. I'm happier being outside the flow."

"There's a time and place for the Kindle, and I own one now and have books on it that I don't otherwise have. But I don't find that my hand reaches out for it the way it does for a trade paperback, or (in the middle of the night) for the iPod Touch."

"Printed books usually outlive bookstores and the publishers who brought them out. They sit around, demanding nothing, for decades. That's one of their nicest qualities - their brute persistence."

"If there's not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something."

"The echoes of eternity remind us that every ending is merely a new beginning in disguise."

"corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility."

"If you have not taken the time to define what happiness means to you, what have your spent your whole life pursuing?"