I like to think that each book I start is a completely new departure But I’ve learned that whatever you do, readers will have no difficulty assimilating it into what you’ve done before.

...falling in love could be achieved in a single word—a glance.

come back, come back to me

Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.

I've never had a moment's doubt. I love you. I believe in you completely. You are my dearest one. My reason for life.

A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.

True intelligence requires fabulous imagination.

When its gone, you'll know what a gift love was. you'll suffer like this. So go back and fight to keep it.

I believe the novella is the perfect form of prose fiction. It is the beautiful daughter of a rambling, bloated ill-shaven giant (but a giant who's a genius on his best days).

I'm holding back, delaying the information. I'm lingering in the prior moment because it was a time when other outcomes were still possible.

Observing human variety can give pleasure, but so too can human sameness.

You can't change laws without first changing human nature... You can't change human nature without first changing the law.

In this sublime hour, therefore, He calls all His children to the pulpit of the Cross, and every word He says to them is set down for the purpose of an eternal publication and an undying consolation.

...before the dawn I leave the night behind meand before my heart I let you leave me behind.- from the poem 'Behind

I'm not good at secrets, so don't tell me any.

It's this simple: If I never try anything, I never learn anything. If I never take a risk, I stay where I am.

... the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy.

We are so ruled by what people tell us we must be that we have forgotten who we are.

I still have great faith in what is good and right in all of us.

I believe God lets us go through all of what we go through for a reason and it's all part of a continued learning curve and journey of revelation and knowledge.

Nothing can be more certain than this: that we are just beginning to learn something of the wonders of the world on which we live and move and have our being.