"The way we behave, our views and outlooks really have their sources some place. They come from somewhere. Sometimes we don't even know what they are, and yet they're very powerful in our lives."

"There was a sense that there was a lot of word of mouth happening with 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter,' even in hardcover."

"I don't think we'll ever lose the desire for people to tell stories or to hear stories or to be entrapped in a beautiful story."

"My first job was in a nursing home - a terrible place in retrospect. It was in an old house, and the residents were so lonely. People rarely visited them. I only stayed there a couple of months, but it made a strong impression on me."

"You had to make an appointment to see her. But it was just a crazy spectacle, people filing past."

"I'm so an all-or-nothing person in dating, always. I'm big on not wasting time. And so, yeah, if something's not working, it's time to not hold people back."

"I don't really find things funny unless they're deeply tragic at the same time. I think if you're funny just for the sake of being funny, it's just frivolous nonsense. To me, all the best comic plays have been written about really serious and rather bleak things."

"Yes, prudently invested contributions to the Social Security fund may bring greater dividends, but those contributions would also face a greater risk. It would be like gambling. We should not gamble with the investments and the future of the citizens of this land."