For lunch, we drove into the hills and parked in the dappled shade of a big sycamore, its powdery white bark like a woman's body against the uncanny blue sky.

She would be half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to flamenco guitar.

The phoenix must burn to emerge.

Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they'll make your soul impervious to the world's soft decay.

You were my home, Mother. I had no home but you

Whenever she turned her steep focus to me, I felt the warmth that flowers must feel when they bloom through the snow, under the first concentrated rays of the sun.

I hated labels anyway. People didn't fit in slots--prostitute, housewife, saint--like sorting the mail. We were so mutable, fluid with fear and desire, ideals and angles, changeable as water.

I couldn't imagine owning beauty like my mothers. I wouldn't dare.

Oleander time, she said. Lovers who kill each other now will blame it on the wind.

Her hatred glittered irresistibly. I could see it, the jewel, it was sapphire, it was the cold lakes of Norway.

Don't turn over the rocks if you don't want to see the pale creatures who live under them.

Being forgiven is like having all the worst bits of yourself stuffed into a balloon and then having that balloon set free.

May you find solace & be comforted by love’s inner warmth, and glow.

Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval.

I want to be identified with the negro; until he gets his rights, we shall never have ours.

We may be different races and religions but we are all part of the same human family

When I was a kid I ate sports books up, like "Winners Never Quit" by Phil Pepe. That was like my bible.

A novel determines its own size and shape and I've never tried to stretch an idea beyond the frame and structure it seemed to require.

A noble purpose inspires sacrifice, stimulates innovation and encourages perseverance.

Whatever is goode in its kinde ought to be preserv'd in respect for antiquity, as well as our present advantage, for destruction can be profitable to none but such as live by it.

No matter how isolated or lonely or down and out you feel, there is always a way out.