Mandy Patinkin

We must build relationships, get to know one another's children, open our arms rather than close our hearts.

In my prayers every day, which are a combination of Hebrew prayers and Shakespeare and Sondheim lyrics and things people have said to me that I've written down and shoved in my pocket, I also say the name of every person I've ever known who's passed on.

Only through loving and supporting one another, even in the face of unbearable pain and suffering, will this cycle of violence end.

I try to get that across in the work, to try to, if I'm lucky, to make this world a little bit better for all of us before I check out. And that's if I'm lucky, I don't always get to have that privilege but I try always.

I desperately want to see the day today and do the best I can not miss a shred of sunlight. It'll be over before I know it.

I was forced to lie to my father by doctors and relatives. I made that choice and agreed with them, and I will never, ever get over it. If I hear a lie in my life with my children, with my wife, my work, my audiences, I want to annihilate myself, vaporize myself, and wipe myself off the face of the earth.

We must not allow the horrific actions of madmen to cut us off from our humanity.