Im writing what comes into my head, or through me, or from somewhere else, and it is the most extraordinary, exciting thing. I love it, and Im very greedy, and I really enjoy it!

Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and nonfiction. And even there, who can be sure?

The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that is cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.

She looked, and a scarlet butterfly flew away from her, away down the length of the tower, and then another, another, an unraveling scarf of butterflies like winged blood.

Archetypes are universal, and, in subtle or extravagant ways, interchangeable.

We need the expressive arts, the ancient scribes, the storytellers, the priests.

The soul is a magician. Only living flesh hampers it.

When I am fascinated by something, I like to play with it.

I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of normal work.

No one is ever ordinary.

Maidens who stay maidens turn into saints. Old women become sorceresses. Tough jobs, both of these.

If we truly love ourselves, in spite of our flaws, then we can love others in spite of theirs.

One realizes the full importance of time only when there is little of it left. Every man's greatest capital asset is his unexpired years of productive life.

I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality.

Life is composed of lines of light, fibers of energy, pulsing, still, pure being.

By prayer, community is created as well as expressed.

Fear both the heat and the cold of your heart, and strive for patience, if you can.

Ah, but art and trouble go hand in hand. If you cannot be troubled to create art from your heart, then your art will never trouble the heart of others.

Not mythical material productive forces, but reason and ideas determine the course of human affairs. What is needed to stop the trend toward socialism and despotism is common-sense and moral courage.

There are many machines throughout history that were built to do something better than a human can.

My first gig, I was about 17 or 18. But I'd been singing a long time. I got a guitar when I was 8, and started trying to write songs as a teenager.