I read Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," all of Shirley Jackson's books, which I loved.

My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Aunt Frances

Others said May was best, that sweet green time when lilacs bloomed and gardens along Main Street were filled with sugary pink peonies and Dutch tulips.

It was a great escape for me and it was a way to take a break from what was going on in my own world, to go into another world.

Be careful what you wish for. I know that for a fact. Wishes are brutal, unforgiving things. They burn your tongue the moment they're spoken and you can never take them back.

I wonder how a lioness will manage in a dovecote. Can you put away your teeth and claws?

The weak are cruel. The strong have no need to be.

Once you know some things, you can't unknow them. It's a burden that can never be given away.

This was what it meant to be human, to know that time moved and all things changed.

No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way.

The evening had turned sweet and blue.

When you change the way you think about a situation, everything connected to that situation will change.

So often we quit on the first failure. We must persistent long enough to achieve success.

Life is like business. It's 20% what happens to you and 80% how you respond”.

Should doubt knock at your doorway, just say to those skeptical, disturbing, rebellious thoughts, I propose to stay with my faith, with the faith of my people.

The body must stay fit. Fit people like themselves much better.

Found out. A nothing player.

To get over my divorce, I got a prescription to live at the Playboy Mansion for a while.

The better the opposition put in front of you, the better your team plays.

The American father is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by means of a telegram in cipher.

There is no one who does not exaggerate. In conversation, men are encumbered with personality, and talk too much.