It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.

Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!

I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.

But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.

It is not how much you love someone, but who you are when you are with him.

The Amateur Marriage grew out of the reflection that of all the opportunities to show differences in character, surely an unhappy marriage must be the richest.

It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice.

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.

People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.

The hardest novel to write was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put.

Acknowledge, accept, and honor that you deserve your own deepest compassion and love.

Do everything with a mind that lets go. Do not expect praise or reward.

At the foot of the cross, there are no racial barriers.

I don't think there is a single social issue I haven't spoken on.

The real power is in the hands of small groups of people and I don't think they have titles.

Defeat held no honor.

You mean you have to be epic already, for it to make you more epic?

What a model of an artist was for me was an artist who worked. Picasso was the ultimate model, because the work ethic he had.

Faith doesn't make sense. It makes miracles.

I have to be pretty inclusive. I have to be pretty much inside of me rather than going out and finding out what people are doing. I don't have the time to. I just listen to my mind, in a way.