I never expected my books to do even as well as they have. I still feel grateful for it, every single day.

And perhaps there is a limit to the grieving that the human heart can do. As when one adds salt to a tumbler of water, there comes a point where simply no more will be absorbed.

I barely knew I had skin before I met you.

Being in love, you know... it's not like having a canary, in a cage. When you lose one sweetheart, you can't just go out and get another to replace her.

Even ashes are a part of your freedom.

I knew Id always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, Well, Id rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one.

I do love the past but wouldnt want to live in it.

Why do gentlemen's voices carry so clearly, when women's are so easily stifled?

Why is it we can never love the people we ought to?

With every step I took away from her, the movement at my heart and between my legs grew more defined: I felt like a ventriloquist, locking his protesting dolls in to a trunk.

For was that all, she thought bleakly, that love ever was? Something that saved one from loneliness? A sort of insurance policy against not counting?

Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.

Men. Young men. Legal age, mind you. But young nonetheless. And it’s not what you think. When we meet, we make … magic.

Time whips up cream for those who are ready for dessert.

Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.

Sharing the holiday with other people, and feeling that you're giving of yourself, gets you past all the commercialism.

If you want to be an innovator, you have to take risks. And sometimes things work and sometimes they don't work.

Creative nonfiction writers do not make things up; they make ideas and information that already exist more interesting and often more accessible.

God seems to throw Himself on the side of the man who knows exactly what he wants, if he is determined to get JUST THAT!

I think we learn some of the greatest lessons in life from animals, whether it's love, suffering, or the value of silence.

I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out.