My mother thought of my father as half barbarian and half blunt instrument, and she isolated him from his children.

Without music, life is a journey through a desert.

It's impossible to explain to a Yankee what 'tacky' is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one.

I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island and I carried the sunshine of the low-country, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders.

I’ve never had anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.

The most powerful words in English are, 'Tell me a story.'

Here is all I ask of a book- give me everything. Everything, and don't leave out a single word.

I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.

There is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss.

The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life.

Smile. it's the second best thing you can do with your lips.

I just loved making words into stories by the sound of my voice.

How you treat an animal often shows your true color.

Why is it that married people always say "Come in" when everything they do says "Get out"? They talk about their miseries and then ask you why you're unmarried.

The fear of dogs is deep and universal amongst all that are less than Man.

There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it.

Childhood is the sleep of reason.

I was very skinny and very lanky and kind of awkward. In Puerto Rico everybody is a little more voluptuous, with these beautiful bodies and there I was the skinny lanky girl.

I know that I will be punished just as much for being an itty-bitty feminist as for going the whole way. And so I go the whole way.

You make one tiny variable and so help me, I’ll have you slaughtered where you sit. (Kiefer) He’s just such a nice man. (Nykyrian)