It seems to me nothing man has done or built on this land is an improvement over what was here before.

A girl is different. They want things. They need things on a regular schedule. Why, a girl's got purposes you and me can't even imagine. They got ideas in their heads you and me can't even suppose.

He wanted to think of words that would make some difference but there were none in any language he knew that were sufficient to the moment or that would change a single thing.

You have to believe in yourself despite the evidence.

I began writing seriously in my mid-20s and didnt publish my first book until I was 41.

Fame isn't healthy for a writer.

Honey, Maggie Jones said. Victoria. Listen to me. You're here now. This is where you are.

My desire is to be anonymous, isolated, quiet, peaceful, and concentrated.

This country's crazy in terms of fame and what people think it means. They expect a writer to be something between a Hollywood starlet and the village idiot.

Here was this man Tom Guthrie in Holt standing at the back window in the kitchen of his house smoking cigarettes and looking out over the back lot where the sun was just coming up.

This boy needs a dog.What makes you say that?He needs someone or something to play with besides his phone and an old man and an old woman doddering around.

Smile, for everyone lacks self-confidence and more than any other one thing a smile reassures them.

Honest statesmanship is the wise employment of individual meanness for the public good.

Either the camera will dance, or I will.

Joy is the happiness of love - love aware of its own inner happiness. Pleasure comes from without, and joy comes from within, and it is, therefore, within reach of everyone in the world.

I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species.

Do not undervalue the headache. While it is at its sharpest it seems a bad investment; but when relief begins, the unexpired remainder is worth $4 a minute.

He who wishes to put on the yellow dress without having cleansed himself from sin, who disregards temperance and truth, is unworthy of the yellow dress.

I think the lawyers are such incredible actors. Can you imagine the performance they have to do every day?

To give, and not demand that others receive . . . that is the crossover point to maturity. . .

Writing the songs is always emotional and most of the vocals on there are the first three takes from the demos, because they give so much more. You're in that moment, so it speaks for itself.