I would like to believe that most people, regardless of gender, are good and kind. The good men in my stories are the rule. It's the bad men that are the exception and because I tend toward the dark in my fiction, you see more of the exception than the rule.
The wickedness of mankind makes it necessary for the law to suppose them better than they really are.
One of the great problems with Americans is that - being a decent people - they assume that everyone else is equally decent.
As a parent, I want my kids to have an optimistic outlook, and one that has hope, and that makes sense, where good does triumph over evil and it's not cynical, and it's not snarky.
I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.
There are no unsavable souls.
I've always thought that as long as I did the right things and had the right intentions, everything would fall into place.
I must not permit the evil capabilities of human nature to sour my faith in the tremendous good that is possible despite the frailty of that nature.
I believe in an ultimate decency of things.
And one more thing: you still believe that man can be good. If that weren't the case, you wouldn't have invented all this nonsense to convince yourself otherwise.
I don't believe in bad people. I believe that people, somewhere inside, have the potential to realize themselves.
There is an optimism which nobly anticipates the eventual triumph of great moral laws, and there is an optimism which cheerfully tolerates unworthiness.
For me, faith means that what is right will win out one day. It means that the universe is not aimless but moves by some positive design.
When you're working on development issues, optimism is not always based on rational analysis, often it is a moral choice.
The struggle to reach the top is itself enough to fulfill the heart of man. One must believe that Sisyphus is happy.
I've got great faith in the essential fairness and decency - you may say goodness - of the human being.
