My disappointments stand up and grow ever taller. They will not be lost to me.

There's something to be said about a slightly plump person—you have just enough of too much.

The inevitable is no less a shock just because it is inevitable.

Express everything you like. No word can hurt you. None. No idea can hurt you. Not being able to express an idea or word will hurt you more. Like a bullet.

I was given a dictionary when I was seven, and I read it because I had nothing else to read. I read it the way you read a book.

People don't make changes because things are wonderful.

I would be lost without the feeling of antagonism that people have towards me. I write out of defiance.

People only say I’m angry because I’m black and I’m a woman.

A great piece of literature encompasses all that is and all that will be.

...yet a memory cannot be trusted, for so much of the experience of the past is determined by the experience of the present.

I'm so used to being misunderstood.

The image of God is in every human

Oh sure, everyone else charges monsters and it's brave, I do it once and I'm a madman.

That's a stupid question, ' said Malachi. 'Because he didn't warn him. He didn't warn anyone.''No, it's a philosophical question, ' Kearns corrected him. 'Which makes it useless, not stupid.

The first and continuing argument for the curtailment of working hours and the raising of the minimum age was that education was necessary in a democracy and working children could not attend school.

Dachshunds are ideal dogs for small children, as they are already stretched and pulled to such a length that the child cannot do much harm one way or the other.

If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various stages of your foolishness.

Get somebody else for Jesus Christ and you will get a new vision of life, a new vision of what it means.

Learning to never quit and keep going is the biggest thing. I don't think it was ever an epiphany, I think that's just the most important thing that has worked for me: to keep going and keep trying.

There's no magic for getting into the groove... just banging away at it. Sometimes the lyrics come first, sometimes the music.

I think if you're remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn't have a resume at all.