Had they known at these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not. People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it.

I suspect the most we can hope for, and it's no small hope, is that we never give up, that we never stop giving ourselves permission to try to love and receive love.

Traits don't change, states of mind do.

I actually see myself in all my characters. In order to imagine what it feels like to be another person I have to use my own experiences and responses to the world.

The facts didn't matter. Their stories mattered, and each of their stories belonged to each of them alone.

You surely know that in the course of a long marriage it is not unusual for a husband or a wife to develop a crush on someone else.

I'm so interested in the fact that we really don't know anybody. We think we know the people close to us, but we don't, we really don't.

In a way, I'm very interested in writing about Maine, because I think Maine represents its own kind of history. It's the oldest state, and it's the whitest state.

People like to think the younger generation's job is to steer the world to hell. But it's never true, is it? They're hopeful and good - and that's how it should be.

Or maybe, he thought, returning to the boxes, it was part of being Catholic--you were made to feel guilty about everything

I do write by hand. I just think - I don't know, it's a physical thing for me. It's a bodily thing. It literally has to earn its way through my hand.

There's a difference between disclosing that which is only your business and hiding away from the world and not seeing, shining and sharing your magic.

Everything that is strong in me has gone into my art work.

That's the wonder of the internet. It's the power of numbers: get enough people to retweet something, someone might see it.

Dedicate yourself to continuous personal improvement you are your most precious resource

Army life don't agree with me.

Change your way of thinking, change your way of doing, change your way of choosing.

From my Christian formation've gotten my ideals and technique Gandhi action

You can always reason with a German. You can always reason with a barnyard animal, too, for all the good it does.

I'm damn successful but I got here by not taking crap. I still don't take crap, so if anybody needs a champion, let it be me.

[Hamas] thought that if you go to elections you become a democrat for the rest of your life. They think that democracy is limited to one day in four years.