Don't tell readers what to think. Let the action speak for itself.

It was our favorite part of the day, this in-between time, and it always seemed to last longer than it should--a magic and lavender space unpinned from the hours around it, between worlds.

My life was my life; I would have to stare it down, somehow, and make it work for me.

Sometimes I wish we could rub out all of our mistakes and start fresh, from the beginning,' I said. 'And sometimes I think there isn't anything to us but our mistakes.

Maybe happiness was an hourglass already running out, the grains tipping, sifting past each other. Maybe it was a state of mind.

If I can write one sentence, simple and true every day, I'll be satisfied.

I miss good old-fashioned honorable people just trying to make something of life. Simply, without hurting anyone else. I know that makes me a sap.

Dogs are easy. If their tails are up and their eyes are soft, you're in.

Not everyone out in a storm wants to be saved

I'd had my share of rain. My mother's illness ... had weighed on me, but the years before had been heavy, too. I was only twenty eight.

She was also incredibly confident, with a way of moving and talking that communicated that she didn't need anyone to tell her she was beautiful or worthwhile.

My heart can feel the softness of a starOnly when the moon stays afar I lay my mind on the pillow of skyWhere sleep dares not ever to pry

A bird does not achieve its highest potential inside its shell.

Internal character: how you behave when no one is watching.

The strongest shoulders are not the well-built shoulders of a weight lifter who carries iron dumbbells, but they are of a mother’s weak shoulders which carry three children!

Politics is applesauce.

Bad people doing bad things is not interesting. What I find interesting is good people doing bad things.

Success depends on intuition, on seeing what afterwards proves true but cannot be established at the moment.

Health care is the No. 1 concern of small businesses and the status quo is untenable.

Eventually you get bored and you want to work.

To a resolute mind, wishing to do is the first step toward doing. But if we do not wish to do a thing it becomes impossible.