I was the goldfish that leapt out of the bowl.

When you read to a child, when you put a book in a child's hands, you are bringing that child news of the infinitely varied nature of life. You are an awakener.

A good novel begins with a small question and ends with a bigger one.

The minute you become conscious that you are doing good, that's the minute you have to stop because from then on it's wrong.

To be human is to be in a story.

Families hold each other in an iron grip of definition. One must break the grip, somehow.

The language of labels is like paper money, issued irresponsibly, with nothing of intrinsic value behind it, that is, with no effort of the intelligence to see, to really apprehend.

Literature is the province of imagination, and stories, in whatever guise, are meditations on life.

People steal into one's consciousness and occupy what seems, in retrospect, to have been their place all along.

Life is all getting used to what you're not used to.

we are, in this country, more open to new ideas. But we are also, it seems to me, more inclined to hail the new as absolute truth - until the next new comes along.

Intelligence will take you to the mountaintop

Erase those negative tapes playing in your head. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you forget. He can cast your hurt in forgetfulness.

A true friend is not the one you share laughter with. But the one you share laughter and sorrow with.

To ‘stop and smell the roses’ we must first believe that there’s a rose garden out there somewhere. And in this jaded world of ours, the refusal to believe in gardens leaves most of us ref of roses.

You can't teach somebody how to be funny. You're either funny, or you ain't.

You mistake patience for forbearance.

I create something that means something to me, to the world, and try to do my best. I can't fix everything.

Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die

The men in my family are strong because the women in my family kill and eat the weak ones.

The reason music became so powerful to our generation is that it's art you can consume in your car, and we were driving around a lot.