Every kid I meet who's a reader has got something like that, their fantasy world. And science fiction is the best, especially for girls because it's the one place where you can do the forbidden.

Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is that if we are not beautiful to each other, we cannot know beauty in any form.

Change, when it comes, cracks everything open.

Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.

Fiction is a piece of truth that turns lies to meaning.

Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is the way you can both hate and love something you are not sure you understand.

I did not begin with craft, I began with strong feelings and worked toward craft.

Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside.

One of the strengths I derive from my class background is that I am accustomed to contempt.

The only magic we have is what we make in ourselves, the muscles we build up on the inside, the sense of belief we create from nothing.

I have wanted everything as a writer and a woman, but most of all a world changed utterly by my revelations.

I've never been poor only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is a temporary situation.

Whoever wins in 2016, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a Republican, I think they should make it their goal to seal that border within a year.

Finding one's voice - or creating a narrative voice that has the power to carry your story - is the hardest part.

Your work may be great and not make its way into the big picture... like Van Gogh... so who's to say what's good and bad?

Remember that every drop of rain that falls bears into the bosom of the earth a quality of beautiful fertility.

There is no better test of a man's ultimate chivalry and integrity than how he behaves when he is wrong... A stiff apology is a second insult.

The current drum sample market isn't offering enough options in terms of how the drums are captured.

When I saw houses in Palmdale going for $500K, I knew something was wrong. If you got foreclosed, I don't feel sorry for you!

Common sense is not too common.