Before I write a novel, images float around in my head that work like icons - they are meaningless in themselves, but serve as reminders.

Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.

I suspected that there were things he knew that I had been waiting all my life to learn.

In many ways, being honest about 'Huckleberry Finn' goes right to the heart of whether we can be honest about our heritage and our identity as Americans.

Even if my marriage is falling apart and my children are unhappy, there is still a part of me that says, 'God, this is fascinating!'

Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.

Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.

But what truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute-for horses

In every society, the artists will be the ones who set themselves up as contrary to whatever the society expects.

As if one could do what one wanted with one's own body!

Because stories start in minds-- they aren't artifacts or natural phenomena.

-The burden of existence is bestowed upon birth.-The gift of existence is bestowed upon birth.Choose wisely, your life (and potential others' life) depend on it.

If a man empties his purse into his head no one can take it from him.

Nature is a machine. The family is a machine. The life cycle is like a machine.

Take every day, love every day, enjoy every day, even if you have a crappy day, find the fun things in it.

Each human needs to find his or her timeless and formless essence identity

Give me, instead of beauty's bust, A tender heart, a loyal mind, Which with temptation I could trust, Yet never linked with error find.

The most effective way to achieve right relations with any living thing is to look for the best in it, and then help that best into the fullest expression.

A great NOW will be a great WAS! A bad NOW will always be a bad WAS, and all you can hope for is a Great GONNA BE!