I believe that illness has led me to a life of gratitude, so I consider Lyme disease at this point in my life to be a blessing in disguise.

It's life. You don't figure it out. You just climb up on the beast and ride.

Maybe people are more like the earth than we know. Maybe they have fault lines that sooner or later are going to split open under pressure.

Good enough is good enough. Perfect will make you a big fat mess every time.

Life is short but it is wide. This too shall pass.

How wide and sweet and wild motherhood and sisterhood can be.

I value humor, kindness, and the ability to tell a good story far more than money, status, or the kind of car someone drives.

I want to lay up like that, to float unstructured, without ambition or anxiety. I want to inhabit my life like a porch.

I never claimed to be a low-maintenance gal, but when I'm writing, it's particularly challenging. I lose things constantly: my watch, my glasses, my papers, my mind.

A scent that disturbs me and delights me. It smells like ripe pears, vetiver, a bit of violet and something else- something spicy almost biting and exotic.

You know how some people, when they're together, they somehow make you feel more hopeful? Make you feel like the world is not the insane place it really is?

Find out the reason that commands you to write

I generally give the title-page a fair chance, " Roger said. "Once can't always judge books merely by the cover.

In solitude we realize that nothing human is alien to us.

A little library, growing larger every year, is an honourable part of a man's history. It is a man's duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life.

Waiting was sometimes the most proactive thing a person could do.

I got the famous Oprah hug!

Around '93, '94, the conventional wisdom about the Internet was that it was a toy for academics and researchers. So it was very, very underestimated for about two years.

There's a lot of good waiting for you on the other side of tired. Get yourself tired.

The women are always vixens or monsters. They can't just be normal people in the book.

Few things are necessary to make the wise man happy while no amount of material wealth would satisfy a fool. I am not a fool.