I always try to stay as quiet as possible about a book until it's finished.

There are times in your life when, despite the steel weight of your memories and the sadness that seems to lie at your feet like a shadow, you suddenly and strangely feel perfectly okay.

The living carry us inside them like pearls. We survive only so long as they remember us.

People who read Anne Lamott, like people who read Anne Rice, believe that tragedy is romantic, but the people who read Anne Lamott believe it ironically.

There was no one alive who did not contribute his share of mystery to the world.

I write out of gratitude for all the books I have loved over the years.

The books you love best - those are the immensity of the sea.

She had the same responsibility as everybody else did: to live as softly as she could in the world.

Worry is a mean-faced dwarf who beats on your heart like a kettledrum.

I had always been the kind of boy who was quick to laugh and quick to cry.

With every sentence she writes, Davis freshens the senses. Her novels achieve a tone that’s unlike anyone else’s, creating an atmosphere you don’t so much interpret as breathe.

Among the many short cuts to science, we badly need someone to teach us the art of learning with difficulty.

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.

the possession of power brings on madness.

I can remember sittin in a cafe when I first started in rodeo, and waitin until somebody got done so I could finish what they left.

The camera will never compete with the brush and the palette, until such time as photographs can be taken in Heaven or Hell.

So many things can drive you mad as a child, not only music.

We all matter - maybe less then a lot but always more than none.

It's taken me a long time to learn to accept the risks and just be willing to try it over and over again.

My family background was heavily slanted toward business and seafaring matters.