"Predawn has always been undervalued as a witching hour, she thought. Midnight, in prose and poem, had gotten all the glory. At this hour, though, people had to gather their lonely, enervated willpower and make the first choices of the day. For that you needed raw courage."

"But “everyone knew” were words of death in scientific research."

"Every fictional character is based on someone. My English teacher told us that."

"Is that the ultimate paradox of life, she wondered, that the universe should become less clear with age?"

"“Do you think I am ill? Mentally?” “Not at all. I believe you had a reaction to something—” “Like an allergy? Peanuts? We don’t have food allergies in Haiti,” she said with disgust. “We cannot afford to.”"

"If irony were clean water, this would be a paradise."

"The United States ambassador’s proposal for a demilitarized zone between the nations had been met with derision in India, whose pundits pointed out that Pakistan could not even establish a de-terrorized zone within it own borders."

"“How do you have a child without being terrified all the time?” “Well, that’s the big secret to parenting, Ben,” Caitlin whispered. “You are terrified all the time. You get used to it. It becomes part of the background. Except for the times when it stabs you through the heart.” He gazed at her a moment, then looked down at his menu. “That was probably the worst sales pitch ever for having kids,” he said."

"I cannot abide red tape. It never strangles bad ideas, only good ones."

"I'm damaged in many ways. And yet a lot of what my fight is about is pushing through that to live a meaningful, sane existence and make a difference and play to my strengths."

"Young women have more choices to make today about what to be. One of those choices is activist."

"I like women a lot and I champion them. I tell people when they are beautiful, I tell other actresses when I think their work is amazing... So I think women feel relatively comfortable in my presence. Also, because I'm not perfect, you know? I've got flabby thighs, I'm aging and I'm 5ft 3in. I talk about my failing in contemporary society in terms of gyms or food or whatever. I think there's a polite appreciation that I'm honest."

"I sometimes don't enjoy it at all, and sometimes it feels like... breath."

"I've always been a believer. I've been a believer in many different realms of alternate reality, the human capacity to move out of different planes of reality. It's something that has been with me since I was a child."

"I don't necessarily consider myself to be an icon, but I do consider myself to be a feminist."