For writing is a solitary occupation, and one of its hazards is loneliness. But an advantage of loneliness is privacy, autonomy, freedom.

Hospital vigils inspire us to such nostalgia. Hospital vigils take place in slow-time during which the mind floats free, a frail balloon drifting into the sky as into infinity.

That I was sleeping at a time when my husband was dying is so horrible a thought, I can’t confront it.

She will speculate that she didn’t fully know her husband—this will give her leverage to seek him, to come to know him. It will keep her husband “alive” in her memory—elusive, teasing.

How exhausted I am suddenly!—though this has been Ray’s best day in the hospital so far, and we are feeling—almost—exhilarated.

It is the most horrific thought—my husband died among strangers.

The coolly calibrated manipulation of the credulous American public, by an administration bent upon stoking paranoid patriotism!

The gardener is the quintessential optimist: not only does he believe that the future will bear out the fruits of his efforts, he believes in the future.

It is utterly naive, futile, uninformed—to think that our species is exceptional. So designated to master the beasts of the Earth, as in the Book of Genesis!

You can make more friends in two months by being interested in other people than in two years of trying to get people interested in you.

Self-sabotage is the smartest thing you can do if you're sabotaging a self that is not really you.

Creativity often consists of merely turning up what is already there.

Everybody tends to think I'm crazy, which is the biggest problem in my life.

There is no promise in the world that is okay to break.

The Cross is the ultimate evidence that there is no length the love of God will refuse to go in effecting reconciliation.

Frustrations are going to be there in every profession you're in.

I write in the mornings. During my down time.

If you believe then unbelievable things can sometimes be possible.

I'm a little angry in life.