Life is a sweet mistake that happened when the world wasn't looking.

I can’t think of a more philosophical time in a person’s life than when they are children. It’s the one time when ideas are really beautiful and amazing and all-encompassing. They are life.

In terms of a "career," I never have long-term plans, and certainly don't want to spend several years, say, writing a "long" novel.

For me, the main inspiration to write a story or novel is the voice of its central character, or the narrative voice of the story itself.

We all make terrible mistakes in our lives.

take words and make them useful, ' she told me. 'drain them of all the crappy meanings they used to mean and make them mean something useful instead.

Wisdom allows you to decide how best to apply yourself to get the most return on your time and energy invested.

On the worst days, I feel fine. On the best days, I know I am not.

Sometimes I have believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

The surest path to success is to surround yourself with brilliant women

Lookin' back is a bad habit.

I shall lend credit to nothing against my people which parents would not believe against their own children.

Brain scientists and education scientists don't get together very often, and we end up living in our own little silos.

When I went in, my editor said, ‘I hope you don’t think you’re a writer.’ And I said, ‘I hope you don’t think I’m a journalist.’ And, uh, turned out we were both right.

When your friends have done right by you, you do right by them.

Cheryl Strayed reminds us, in her lyrical and courageous memoir Wild, of what it means to be fully alive, even in the face of catastrophe, physical and psychic hardship, and loss.