My relationship with my mother trapped me in the identity of a child.

The trees were friendly, they gave me rest and shadowed refuge. Slipping through them, I felt safe and competent. My whole body was occupied. I had little energy to think or worry.

Beneath hot sun, desert roses bloomed. Under cold moon, I still refused to.

Water was liquid silver, water was gold. It was clarity—a sacred thing. Drinking was no longer something to take for granted. I’d never needed to consider water before.

There was so little I wanted to carry. Packing my backpack took me all of four minutes

The bravest thing I ever did was leave there. The next bravest thing I did was come back, to make myself heard.

I’d believed I needed to be steady in myself before I could function with others—but surviving alone no longer felt like a good way either.

I realized that the most empowering important thing was actually simply taking care of myself.

I was promising myself strength.I had to write it, say it, make the effort and fake it before I actually believed I could do it.

I was the director of my life, it was already true, and I would soon lead myself to my dreamed-of destinations.It was the task of my one thousand miles of solitude.

I no longer needed to peel myself of my skin, or to hide. To Dash the colorless ephemeral things that existed just beneath my surface were as vivid as the beauty marks he traced on my cheek.

If you want nothing to do with god then why do you say his name all the time

Love is something you must accept in order to have, Naomi.

Isn’t it an irony of the sorts that most evolved people think that they are dispensable, lesser humans think that they are indispensable, and the devolved ones think that rest are dispensable.

Regarding the fitness craze: America has lost its soul

I say there is no darkness but ignorance, " said William Shakespeare. How would he know, he knew everything?

This is a global fight to get the right people in the right place and we're talking about people with PhDs in engineering, computer science, mathematics.

Our awesome responsibility to ourselves, to our children, and to the future is to create ourselves in the image of goodness, because the future depends on the nobility of our imaginings.

My credit card company calls me if it looks like I've bought too many hoodies and cargo pants for my kid at Old Navy.

There is no question that women helping women works for women.

I don't know about that. I'm not a very analytical person. I have various impulses. I've often quoted Walt Whitman's phrase "I contain multitudes." I understand that.