Each divorce is the death of a small civilization.

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.

Meeting a dragon is like falling in love. Even though you have never experienced it before, you will know when it has happened.

When I entered medical physics in 1958 there were fewer than 100 in the U.S. and I could see many opportunities to apply my knowledge of nuclear physics.

Not often do you approach a character where people know more about him than you do.

When you write things down, you commit to doing them. If you simply tell me what you want to do, there is really no commitment to getting it done.

I don’t care if the cat is black or white, I just want it to kill the mice.

You know, when a man is raped you never hear about what he was wearing.

Lawyers earn a living by the sweat of browbeating others.

The calories in chocolate don't count because chocolate comes from the cocoa bean, and everyone knows that beans are good for you.

the thing I would wish for anybody I loved would be the possibility of never coming to the end of discovery. I think it is what makes life worth living.

Negotiating means getting the best of your opponent.