A recipe is a story that ends with a good meal.

Without music, life is a journey through a desert.

It's impossible to explain to a Yankee what 'tacky' is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one.

I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island and I carried the sunshine of the low-country, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders.

I’ve never had anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.

The most powerful words in English are, 'Tell me a story.'

Here is all I ask of a book- give me everything. Everything, and don't leave out a single word.

I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.

There is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss.

The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life.

To be perfectly honest, it scared me a little. You get so used to seeing the same thing in the mirror every day you stop thinking about what you look like.

I really enjoy listening to stories. I remember them and keep them in my mind.

So long as you are ready to die for humanity, the life of your country is immortal.

Adolescence is a border between childhood and adulthood. Like all borders, it's teeming with energy and fraught with danger.

There is a monumental difference between being alive and living. You should never settle for the first.

You need to learn independence. You have to be independent - it builds character.

Let me say at the outset that I do not reflexively oppose international trade.

Never be afraid to expose a weakness in yourself. Exposing a weakness is the beginning of strength.

A stubborn mind conduces as little to wisdom or even to knowledge, as a stubborn temper to happiness

The Beatles are dying in the wrong order.