I think the last couple of years of life for many, many people are the same as they were 50, 60, 70 years ago. They could be really tough because of infirmity.

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.

Don't change your mind just because people are offended

To work for salary is to mortgage your life.

In a day a man needs only his daily bread.

Young writers should read books past bedtime and write things down in notebooks when they are supposed to be doing something else.

On Hallowe'en the old ghosts come about us, and they speak to some; to others they are dumb.

I didn't want to write a book. They made me do it.

It is one of Heaven's best gifts to hold such a dear creature in one's arms.

The substitute that thinks his place below him, will certainly be below his place.

That's progress: when we prove things wrong.

Smells are surer than sounds or sights To make your heartstrings crack.