I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and one of the things I like to say is that one of the biggest impediments I had to becoming a successful writer is I had a very happy childhood.

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

A finished person is a boring person.

There is a little boy inside the man who is my brother... Oh, how I hated that little boy. And how I love him too.

After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'm enough.'

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.

There is a lot of talk now about metal detectors and gun control. Both are good things. But they are no more a solution than forks and spoons are a solution to world hunger.

Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.

You are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life ... Your entire life ... Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.

America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.

Poets have a license to lie.

Do not be satisfied with God's calling or His gifts in your life. Be satisfied with Jesus Christ Himself.

You have to lose yourself in the team and you have to lose yourself in the game

To know objects only through dissecting and cataloguing them is to miss their full reality. It is to fall asleep amidst the mystery and to become numb to the wonder of this great Earth.

I have never acknowledged the difference between serious music and light music. There is only good music and bad music.

The most important thing is to be strong. With strength, one can conquer others, and to conquer others gives one virtue.

Honestly, if the public still wants to hear me in some works, I have to go down a half step.

Since there is no telling in advance where it may lead, reflection can be seen as dangerous .

I don't mean to sound corny, but it's one word: results. If you get results, you can get anyone.