My father was a mean, controlling and manipulative person for most of his life. He was unpredictable and unstable.

You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.

Every day is a gift from God. Learn to focus on the Giver and enjoy the gift!

Being negative only makes a difficult journey more difficult. You may be given a cactus, but you don't have to sit on it.

Encourage everyone you meet with a smile or compliment. Make them feel better when you leave their presence and they will always be glad to see you coming.

We suffer much agony because we try to get from people what only God can give us, which is a sense of worth and value. Look to God for what you need, not to people.

Love can melt the hardest heart, heal the wounds of the broken heart and quiet the fears of the anxious heart.

I make mistakes every day. I'm not perfect in my behavior, but I want to be and that's what God is after, a heart that wants to be.

Don't be afraid to step out, have dreams, have visions, have hopes and always, always, always believe in miracles.

A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances instead of your circumstances having power over you.

When we are truly confident and secure, the opinions of others cannot control us.

. . .once you find out he's cheated on you, you have to keep finding out, over and over and over again, until you've degraded yourself so completely that there's nothing left to do but walk out.

I'd been blindsided with the most painful knowledge: the first man to ever say he loved me had never loved me at all. His passion had been artificial. His pursuit of me had been choreographed.

I thought one only had to speak Latin through one's nose and bite off the end.

Every present anger derives from past weakness.

I think gambling can be a good thing if you don't take it too seriously. Take it and have fun with it, and don't lose what you can't afford to lose.

A color which would be 'dirty' if it were the color of a wall, needn't be so in a painting.

You can do anything in London, as long as you don't do it on the street.

Figure out what you are meant to contribute to the world and make sure you contribute it

I have respect for those who make money at art and do it well and smartly, because that commercial aspect keeps the world going and running, in a sense.

The lesson you have to learn as novelist is how to be collaborative, and how to say, "I don't get to dictate this."