Life is so messy that the temptation to straighten it up is very strong. And the results always illusory.

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

A finished person is a boring person.

There is a little boy inside the man who is my brother... Oh, how I hated that little boy. And how I love him too.

After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'm enough.'

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.

There is a lot of talk now about metal detectors and gun control. Both are good things. But they are no more a solution than forks and spoons are a solution to world hunger.

Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.

You are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life ... Your entire life ... Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.

America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.

I didn't just hear music. It seemed as if I were part of the music.

The only way to end grief was to go through it.

A wise man's goal shouldn't be to say something profound, but to say something useful.

I have no news of my coming or passing away--the whole thing happened quicker than a breath

There's always room for improvement. I'm always focused on the results, and those are the precise things that I don't really experience as a part of the performance.

I know death comes. I've seen too much death, young death.

Celebrity is something I've never been into, and never will be.

God stands ready to allocate his power to all who are radically dependent on Him and radically devoted to making much of Him.

Well, I'm Italian, but my family isn't stereotypical. I mean, I only have one sister and we don't yell or throw pasta at each other. My mother doesn't even have a secret spaghetti sauce recipe.

When we protect ourselves so we won't feel pain, that protection becomes like armor, like armor that imprisons the softness of of the heart.