It's interesting, though, that in daily life, I think of myself as being relatively unobservant.

People forget years and remember moments.

When I was teaching at Harvard in the 1970s, I went to Project Incorporated in Cambridge and took photography classes. I didn't even know how to aim the camera in those days.

Because I don’t work with an outline, writing a story is like crossing a stream, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock.

Clichés so often befall vain people.

I think almost always that what gets me going with a story is the atmosphere, the visual imagery, and then I people it with characters, not the other way around.

I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure. It wouldn't have any vitality.

There is some reason, obviously, that you are drawn to your material, but the way in which you explore it might come to be quite different from what you would expect.

Nobody can assume that, to a writer, everything is off-limits.

I like a lot of Margaret Atwood, I like much of Alice Munro. Again, if you were to ask me about male writers, there's often a novel I admire, but not all of their works.

It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that.

If you have faith in yourself you will never lick the dust of defeat in any ground

Know that EVERYTHING in Life has purpose. There are no accidents, no coincidences, EVERY moment is a blessing given for our Spiritual benefit and learning.

The shadow is dark and the woods are cold, but they are not endless. No matter how lost you are now, you are not lost forever. You are findable.Love just keeps on looking. Love is forever tries.

Reading changes your perspective and feeds your imagination.

With technology today you can sing like a frog and sound good. And then when you come on stage, what do you do. Some of those artists never toured, probably just hype.

The electricity is back on in Baghdad. That is a very climactic moment in any country's liberation, when the lights come back on and you get a good look at what you looted.

Actually, there is no more important task for a leader than to pick people. To make sure you have the very best people working for you.

Pastors are highly susceptible to the sin of sloth.

He that is drunken * * * Is outlawed by himself; all kind of ill Did with his liquor slide into his veins.

Where the habits are simple, and the mind truly elevated, then is society in the best state.