Claim your space. Draw a circle of light around it. Push back against the dark. Don't just survive. Celebrate.

Ask her what she craved, and she'd get a little frantic about things like books, the woods, music. Plants and the seasons. Also freedom.

We are not strong enough to stand up against endless grief, And yet pain is the constant drone of life. So if we are to have any happiness at all, it is only in the passing instant.

She always carried a book, though, in case she needed to read a few pages to avoid unwanted conversation.

Thinking: this journey will be the axle of my life.

All I can say is that we are mistaken to gouge such a deep rift in history that the things old men and old women know have become so useless as to be not worth passing on to grandchildren.

Well, I'm a slow writer. For me, a good day is a page, maybe a page and a half. I'd love to be more efficient, but I am not.

I had never taken creative writing classes. Hadn't even considered it.

A lizard in the spring - hear his darling sing. A bird with wings to fly - go back to his darling weep and moan till he dies. A mole in the ground - root a mountain down.

He tried to name which of the deadly seven might apply, and when he failed he decided to append an eighth, regret.

It always helps me connect with characters, to think about what music they respond to

This is generous, for to be close to her pain has always felt like a privilege to me, even though pain could be defined as that which we typically aim to avoid.

All reform except a moral one will prove unavailing.

A great leader cannot worry about being well liked.

Of the irrational part of the soul again one division appears to be common to all living things, and of a vegetative nature.

Congealed fat is pretty much the same, irrespective of the delicacy around which it is concealed.

People know I love to shoot action and that I'm not afraid of emotion.

There is a certain pleasure in weeping.

I am comfortable with anything I sing: jazz, gospel, classical. It doesn't matter. I can do it all.

I like Cilantro, but you don't have to.

To teach is great, but to inspire is divine.