I think I'm like most novelists in that my books have gotten farther and farther away from autobiography the longer I've been writing them.

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.

The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past.

Remember no matter how fast you run, you can't be the winner if you don't finish. As someone said, to be the first to finish, you must finish first! Go, take the strike!

Visions and words go together only when inspirations connects them!

The 'humanity' that we bear is stuck in dividing grades. The affinity, the warmth in our hearts has turned partial accordingly.

Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.

Think how many blameless lives are brightened by the blazing indiscretions of other people.

I'm not a guy who sees the desire to transform with each part; I'm not a piece of clay.

Only fools mistake politicians for messiahs.

I wish that every player could feel what I've felt in visiting ballparks. The receptions I've received, it's blown me away. It's absolutely remarkable.

We know what we have to do. I know I have to get up in the morning, put my underwear on first and then put my pants on first. I don't need people to tell me that.