It is my feeling that a story is not finished until it is read, and that the reader finishes it through his or her life experience, prejudices, worldview and thoughts.

You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music.

You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.

I wish I knew how to quit you.

Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.

Anyway, there's something wrong with everybody and it's up to you to know what you can handle.

If you get the landscape right, the characters will step out of it, and they'll be in the right place.

We're all strange inside. We learn how to disguise our differences as we grow up.

I think it's important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience.

Develop craftsmanship through years of wide reading.

What we fear we often rage against.

Words are the fallen ruins of silent majesty.

The saddest realization I’ve had in my life is that my parents are people. Sad, human people. I aged a decade in that moment.

You can always get the truth from an American statesman after he has turned seventy or given up all hope of the Presidency.

Those who weep recover more quickly than those who smile.

Food is not your best friend or enemy.

Ultimately, if I'm really moved by something, it's going to go on the record and that's that

Google is where we go for answers. People used to go elsewhere or, more likely, stagger along not knowing.

Your heart, Mary Karr, he'd say. His pen touched my sternum, and it felt for all the world like the point of a dull spear as he said, Your heart knows what your head don't. Or won't.

Think before you act: it's not your money.

I guess I hit a point while I was in college when I realized I would have to do something with my life!