Not only did I avoid speaking of Salinger; I resisted thinking about him. I did not reread his letters to me. The experience had been too painful.

She felt everything too deeply, it was like the world was too much for her.

It's not only children who grow. Parents do too.

A person who deserves my loyalty receives it.

The big dramas that fascinate me are the quiet ones that happen behind closed doors in so-called ordinary families.

The painter who feels obligated to depict his subjects as uniformly beautiful or handsome and without flaws will fall short of making art.

At Home in the World is the story of a young woman, raised in some difficult circumstances, and how she survives. It tells a story of redemption, not victimhood.

To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.

My job is writing. I get paid to do it. When was the last time you heard someone challenge a doctor for making money off of cancer?

The portrait of my parents is a complicated one, but lovingly drawn.

Those who rhapsodize about the ease and joy of childhood have perhaps forgotten what it's like to be 12 years old.

I have always had a mystical attitude toward inspiration. That's my nature.

Anything that's of any use, famous people get hold of it and take it for themselves and it gets a bad rap.

God is a verb, not a noun.

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.

What the problem was was this colossal redundancy, the squandering of brilliant technique on cheap material.

I don’t care how old I live! I just want to be living while I am living!

She tortured everybody around her, but only because she was more tortured than anyone.

In life, as in restaurants, we swallow a lot of indigestible stuff just because it comes with the dinner.

Americans don’t want drama, especially good drama, they just want their boredom killed.

I can't figure out why fans keep coming, maybe it's because they dig the songs.