Every person is able to add beauty, whether by growing flowers, or singing, or cooking luscious meals, or raising sweet pets. Every part of life can be art.

It is when we are most lost that we sometimes find our truest friends.

I learned to write from authors. I didn't know any, but I read their books.

I want to do something important in my life, and I think that adding beauty to the world with books... really is important.

It is odd how we sometimes deny ourselves the very pleasure we have longed for and which is finally within our reach.

I love being a writer because I want to leave something here on earth to make it better, prettier, stronger.

But those with an evil heart seem to have a talent for destroying anything beautiful which is about to bloom.

In November, the trees are standing all sticks and bones. Without their leaves, how lovely they are, spreading their arms like dancers. They know it is time to be still.

When the wicked want to bring down the innocent, they aim for a loving heart.

I am so grateful to be a writer. I hope every child grows up and finds something to do that will seem important and that will seem precious. Happy living and, especially, happy playing.

Writing stories has given me the power to change things I could not change as a child. I can make boys into doctors. I can make fathers stop drinking. I can make mothers stay.

I cannot count the good people I know who, to my mind, would be even better if they bent their spirits to the study of their own hungers.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life

He didn’t like the idea of leaving unfinished business behind. He had wanted definite answers about the heart attacks to be able to turn the page on who or what caused so many of his brothers to die.

I think women like Ferraris. A Ferrari is everybody's car.

Mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people

[Phil Wood] was a great artist, and he knew things. He could be mildly conversant in several languages.

I do a lot of comedy and I like that. I am happy doing funny films. I am often the straight person in a comedy, which is great as long as there are talented people to work with.

All prayers are answered. We need to distinguish between a prayer unanswered, and one not answered how or when we would like it to be.

I'm so lucky to have worked with Burt Lancaster, who I remember was one of the first people I'd heard swearing in a really interesting way.

Hospitals are great places, and you can learn from them, but you don't necessarily need to go in anytime you get the sniffles. And maybe you shouldn't treat pregnancy as a disease.