“This is not going to be easy. I'm good at being bad, but I'm bad at being good. I don't know the first thing about good deeds.”

“I'm a good person. In most ways. But I'm beginning to think that being a good person in most ways doesn't count for anything very much, if you're a bad person in one way.”

“To be good is to be forgotten. I'm going to be so bad I'll always be remembered.”

“I know that I'm gonna be like this forever
I'm never gonna be what I should
And you think that I'll be bad for just a little while
But I know that I'll be bad for good.”

“I'm afraid I'm a practical man,' said the doctor with gruff humour, 'and I don't bother much about religion and philosophy.'
'You'll never be a practical man till you do,' said Father Brown. 'Look here, doctor; you know me pretty well; I think you know I'm not a bigot. You know I know there are all sorts in all religions; good men in bad ones and bad men in good ones.”

“I don't know if Native Son is a good book or a bad book. And I don't know if the book I'm working on now will be a good book or a bad book. And I really don't care. The mere writing of it will be more fun and a deeper satisfaction than any praise or blame from anybody. I feel that I'm lucky to be alive to write novels today, when the whole world is caught in the pangs of war and change.”

“What's wrong with being naked? I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I pay my taxes. I'm a good man. I'm a good father - try to be, anyway. I try to do the right things in life.”

“Here's the thing about luck… you don't know if it's good or bad until you have some perspective.”

“I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject.”

“You are entering a phase of your life in which many different things will occur… bad things that seem good at first and good things that seem bad at first.”