It is the storyteller's task to elicit sympathy and a measure of understanding for those who lie outside the boundaries of State approval.

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My hand on a pen does. A fountain pen, of course. Ball-point pens are only good for filling out forms on a plane.

Hate is a lack of imagination.

Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt

Innocence always calls mutely for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.

Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.

A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.

A single feat of daring can alter the whole conception of what is possible.

Sweet are the thoughts that savor of content: the quiet mind is richer than a crown.

People who like quotes love meaningless generalizations

The mad have a grace all their own".

If there's anything more mortifying than being famous at 14, it's being washed up right after.

If grammar is medicine, then Roy Clark gives us the spoonful of sugar to help it go down. A wonderful tour through the labyrinth of language.

He is racist, he's homophobic, he's xenophobic and he's a sexist. He's the perfect Republican candidate. [California Democratic Party chairman about Pat Buchanan.]

Those who say they will forgive but can't forget, simply bury the hatchet but leave the handle out for immediate use.

Consciousness is the screen. The images on the screen are your perceptions, the illusion that life is solid, that there is a material universe.

The country needs the political work of women to-day as much as it has ever needed woman in any other work at any other time.

Lit majors are not known for watching where they're going; most of us walk with our eyes in a book instead of on the path ahead.

To date, nearly 100,000 Hispanics have died with AIDS. Since Hispanics are the fastest growing minority group in the United States, our challenge is even greater.

I was trying so hard. I would memorize the entire script, then I'd be lipping everybody's lines while they were talking. When I watch those episodes, it's disgusting. My performances were horrible.