"Selfishness makes Christmas a burden; Love makes it a delight. The joy of brightening a child's heart creates the magic of Christmas."

“I've got to where I've always wanted to be. I just feel more myself, and I've learned not to care what other people think. It's happened slowly, very slowly. But I did it.”

“I will live in the past, the present, and the future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me.”

“Strength of the mind is more powerful than strength of the muscles.”

“Here I am: a Russian-speaking Jew living in Canada, and you, an Indian ex-patriot living in San Francisco. All of a sudden we commune in this moment about a much older Russian political dissident.That's the human part of being human: feeling those moments.”

Source : The Believer interview, logger.believermag.com. September 23, 2014.

“The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed.”

“A part of me feels like I was an animal in my past life that wasn't treated very nicely.”

“What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.”

“Oh if at every moment of our lives we could know the consequences of some of the utterings, thoughts and deeds that seem so trivial and unimportant at the time! And should we not conclude from such examples that there is no such thing in life as unimportant moments devoid of meaning for the future?”