I grew up reading crime fiction and, especially in the '80s, women were just there to be saved or screwed.

You can take my heart, but I can't let you take my dog.

Don't try to follow in my footsteps. Make your own footsteps! No one else can tell the stories that are inside of you except for you.

Keeping libraries open, giving access to all children to all books is vital to our nation's sovereignty.

I never felt isolated; I just liked being alone. I think that some people are good at being alone, and some people arent, and as a child, I really liked it.

Reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.

Everybody had something horrible happen to them at one time or another in their life.

[On men:] ... you never know what they're like until you get them home and take them out of their packages.

As a Southerner, I love obstacles for my characters.

Everyone had a reason for everything they did, even if that reason was sometimes stupidity.

You didn't realize what was passing you by until you slowed down a little bit to get a better look.

When humor goes, there goes civilization.

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.

The purpose of the law is not to prevent a future offense, but to punish the one actually committed.

Sudden Light I have been here before, But when or how I cannot tell: I know the grass beyond the door, The sweet keen smell, The sighing sound, the light around the shore.

If you cultivate a relationship in a genuine, thoughtful way, people will be more inclined to want to help you even though they don't have to help you.

There is an assumption that if you're young and pretty, you will get all these opportunities that are way beyond your musical foundation.

It's the subject matter that counts. I'm interested in revealing the subject in a new way to intensify it. A photo is able to capture a moment that people can't always see.

Perhaps somewhere, someplace deep inside your being, you have undergone important changes while you were sad.

When the self is ones exclusive subject and limit, reference and measure, one has no choice but to make a world of words.

If you want to know where I come by the passionate commitment I have to bringing people together without regard to race, it all started with my grandfather.