Condemned and executioner with aren't coupled in a primitive rite.

Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and nonfiction. And even there, who can be sure?

The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that is cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.

She looked, and a scarlet butterfly flew away from her, away down the length of the tower, and then another, another, an unraveling scarf of butterflies like winged blood.

Archetypes are universal, and, in subtle or extravagant ways, interchangeable.

We need the expressive arts, the ancient scribes, the storytellers, the priests.

The soul is a magician. Only living flesh hampers it.

When I am fascinated by something, I like to play with it.

I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of normal work.

No one is ever ordinary.

Maidens who stay maidens turn into saints. Old women become sorceresses. Tough jobs, both of these.

Eat like you love your body.

Cats are independent, by which I mean smart.

You just can't keep pouring money down an endless hole and never recoup any of it. It's got to be a business.

The will to live that possesses us to create medicine, to become firefighters or teachers, is the same will to live that is woven into all living beings.

You might be a redneck if going to the bathroom involves shoes and a flashlight.

I keep telling people that the secret of their success is discovered in their daily agenda. What they do daily is going to determine their success.

The feminine aspect has been crushed for millennia in most cultures. I believe the future lies in a balance of the male/female duality

Power doesn't corrupt. It's neutral. Someone always wants to corrupt power. It's the way a shotgun is not a deadly weapon until someone chooses to use it irrationally.

l can do very well without God both in my life and in my painting, but l cannot, ill as I am, do without something which is greater than l, which is my life — the power to create.

If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.