I think I would have died if there hadn't been the women's movement.

Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is that if we are not beautiful to each other, we cannot know beauty in any form.

Change, when it comes, cracks everything open.

Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.

Fiction is a piece of truth that turns lies to meaning.

Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is the way you can both hate and love something you are not sure you understand.

I did not begin with craft, I began with strong feelings and worked toward craft.

Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside.

One of the strengths I derive from my class background is that I am accustomed to contempt.

The only magic we have is what we make in ourselves, the muscles we build up on the inside, the sense of belief we create from nothing.

I have wanted everything as a writer and a woman, but most of all a world changed utterly by my revelations.

Vulnerability is the portal to feeling. Feeling is the portal to strength.

If two people could make each other smile and laugh and forget all the pain and darkness in the world for a moment, why should we feel ashamed of it?

My wisdom absent of God’s wisdom is nothing more than a best-guess.

Each day can be one of triumph if you keep up your interests.

It is no good wishing for what was not to be.

[Tim] Kaine, in Virginia, you know he wasn't popular?His first move as governor of Virginia was to raise taxes by 4 billion dollars. He was not popular in Virginia.

It's not going to be easy. It's the earth. What creates power in your life is when you perfect your mind, your career, and your associations with others.

All great cathedrals began their building by the placement of a single stone. The building unit of a great society is the individual.

Success always takes help. Failure is done alone.

It was both Abraham's and the Jews' privilege also that they should have this promise to all generations.