I think of myself as a realistic writer, not a creator of soap opera or melodrama.

She felt everything too deeply, it was like the world was too much for her.

It's not only children who grow. Parents do too.

A person who deserves my loyalty receives it.

The big dramas that fascinate me are the quiet ones that happen behind closed doors in so-called ordinary families.

The painter who feels obligated to depict his subjects as uniformly beautiful or handsome and without flaws will fall short of making art.

At Home in the World is the story of a young woman, raised in some difficult circumstances, and how she survives. It tells a story of redemption, not victimhood.

To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.

My job is writing. I get paid to do it. When was the last time you heard someone challenge a doctor for making money off of cancer?

The portrait of my parents is a complicated one, but lovingly drawn.

Those who rhapsodize about the ease and joy of childhood have perhaps forgotten what it's like to be 12 years old.

– I’m going to be a writer, he reminded Milo.– And you won’t need literature?– I’ll write my own.

The fear of failure is a liability.

Reading well is one of the great pleasuresthat solitude can afford you, because it isat least in my experience, the most healing of pleasures.

The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.

We are not here to fear, we are here to hope and dreams to win the world.

No one can rightly call his garden his own unless he himself made it.

I think I would have a very, very good relationship with Vladimir Putin, and I think I would have a very, very good relationship with Russia.

Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me.

I tell people to frame the picture. Make the greatest, most perfect composition you can . . . and then take a step forward. It skews it a bit and makes it more interesting.

A personality for the incredibly beautiful can be a pointless cargo.