"An honorable human relationship ? that is, one in which two people have the right to use the word "love" ? is a process, delicate, violent, often terrifying to both persons involved, a process of refining the truths they can tell each other.

"They said that love was terrifying and tender, wild and sweet, and none of it made any sense.

Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn't through love, because love is hard, It makes demands. Hate is simple. So the first thing that happens in a conflict is that we choose a side, because that's easier than trying to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time. The second thing that happens is that we seek out facts that confirm what we want to believe - comforting facts, ones that permit life to go on as normal. The third is that we dehumanize our enemy.

The truth is I had always wanted to be a comedian but I really didn't have that kind of personality and it's a terrifying thing to say.

My parents had this relationship that was really terrifying. I mean the level of hatred that they had and the level of physical abuse - my mother would beat up my father basically - and I think I was drawn to images on television that were bright and reflective.

All the idols made by man however terrifying they may be are in point of fact subordinate to him and that is why he will always have it in his power to destroy them.

My friends never talk to me about my poetry because they're embarrassed that I write it or they're embarrassed by what I write about which are not such extraordinarily terrifying things but they are the state of human existence.

Poetry is the language we speak in the most terrifying or ecstatic passages of our lives. But the very word poetry scares people. They think of their grade school teachers reciting 'Hiawatha' and they groan.

Marriage is actually really terrifying. It doesn't work for many people.

Accept that all of us can be hurt that all of us can and surely will at times fail. Other vulnerabilities like being embarrassed or risking love can be terrifying too. I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst take the risk.

The truth is often terrifying which I think is one of the motifs of Larry and Andrew's cinema. The cost of knowledge is an important theme. In the second and third films they explore the consequences of Neo's choice to know the truth. It's a beautiful beautiful story.

We're in an emergency situation. The United States has become an absolutely terrifying country and I would hope that I could participate in some way in stopping the horror and the brutality.

All of a sudden to get all of this attention and to be away from home and working all the time was hard. I was on planes all the time. I didn't see my friends. I cried a lot. It was quite terrifying.

Billy is a funny cheeky lovely boy and I love being with him. Parenthood is terrifying though. I can barely walk past a building without panicking that it's going to collapse on his head.

We've seen some insane signs: 'Is that a loaf of bread in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?' Funny stuff along those lines. Very original. One just said 'I will do unspeakable things.' I thought that was very interesting - and mildly terrifying!

You have to find a balance with food in your life - you can't take out food. It can be absolutely terrifying.

We fear violence less than our own feelings. Personal private solitary pain is more terrifying than what anyone else can inflict.

I'm not a fighter but I would love to be a boxer because I love the courage and toughness. I mean there can be nothing more terrifying than walking into an arena and looking at Mike Tyson in the ring.

The most terrifying thing I can think of is being alone - and I mean utterly alone like no one else in the world alone - at night. That's the nucleus of the first story in my collection and it's also where the title came from for the book.