Reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.

You can take my heart, but I can't let you take my dog.

Don't try to follow in my footsteps. Make your own footsteps! No one else can tell the stories that are inside of you except for you.

Keeping libraries open, giving access to all children to all books is vital to our nation's sovereignty.

I never felt isolated; I just liked being alone. I think that some people are good at being alone, and some people arent, and as a child, I really liked it.

Everybody had something horrible happen to them at one time or another in their life.

[On men:] ... you never know what they're like until you get them home and take them out of their packages.

As a Southerner, I love obstacles for my characters.

Everyone had a reason for everything they did, even if that reason was sometimes stupidity.

You didn't realize what was passing you by until you slowed down a little bit to get a better look.

People just make stupid mistakes. And they keep making them and keep making them, and suddenly they can't dig themselves out.

The difficulty with humorists is that they will mix what they believe with what they don’t—whichever seems likelier to win an effect.

Because I want to know if I'm allowed to kiss your tears away. Because I want to be able to hold your hand. Because I like you.

Preservation of life is the only true joy.

We've gone from looking up at the moon to looking down at Instagram.

If you were in a bad relationship and you meet someone new, you're going to leave with your luggage. The next person is going to have to endure things that someone else causes.

I've gone through stages where I hate my body so much that I won't even wear shorts and a bra in my house because if I pass a mirror, that's the end of my day.

I take full responsibility here and now for everything I experience, for it is my own programming that creates my actions and also influences the reactions of people around me.

I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.

We are here to love each other. That is why you are alive. That is what life is for.

I consider this a kind of neoliberalism of the Left, this rise and promotion of spontaneity above preparation.