Hope is a punishable offense. The verdict is always death; one more death of the heart.

Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and nonfiction. And even there, who can be sure?

The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that is cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.

She looked, and a scarlet butterfly flew away from her, away down the length of the tower, and then another, another, an unraveling scarf of butterflies like winged blood.

Archetypes are universal, and, in subtle or extravagant ways, interchangeable.

We need the expressive arts, the ancient scribes, the storytellers, the priests.

The soul is a magician. Only living flesh hampers it.

When I am fascinated by something, I like to play with it.

I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of normal work.

No one is ever ordinary.

Maidens who stay maidens turn into saints. Old women become sorceresses. Tough jobs, both of these.

You don’t command wind in the direction it blows, but you command a ship in the direction it sails.

You can run from the past, but it always catches up with you.

A heart worth loving is one you understand, even in silence.

Cities vary widely in the use of DNA testing.

You'd be surprised how fast things happen when the right man comes along.

All I have is an opinion - I don't deal in Truth.

'Fahrenheit 9/11' is astounding. Not so much as a film - although it is cunning and moving - but as an event.

Bad men cannot make good citizens.

Activist government overreach and ongoing economic stagnation have shown us why Washington should not try to displace what is best left to civil society.

I keep thinking about you every few minutes all day.