Southerners ask intimate questions in the way monkeys groom each other for lice, not to pry but to make you feel cared for.

Strength just comes in one brand - you. Stand up at sunrise and meet what they send you and keep your hair combed

The only thing more destructive than a tornado is a family.

Stand up at sunrise and meet what they send you.

What I still ask for daily-for life as long as I have work to do, and work as long as I have life.

Life is short and often stingy; feast the heart with what it craves, short of cruelty, and let the world wonder.

The sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives.

Cities are the least permanent things in our civilization.

As a child I thought it was very boring when I had to sit with [my mother] on the city streets, but the time sank deep and surfaced later.

Writing is a fearsome but grand vocation—potentially healing but likewise deadly. I wouldn’t trade my life for the world.

The death of every art form seems imminent at least once in every century; but while the very funeral arrangements go forward, some child is born who is Michelangelo, Picasso, Yeats.

Creativity sparks originality which then manifests itself into what we call evolution. To depreciate imagination is to depreciate life.

Pursue your dream with great might.

She had a smile that could put a froth on a cup of coffee, and she knew it.

I think anybody who is racist is an idiot whether they are black or white.

Money has not changed me. When I look at money, each dollar represents an option of something I could not do yesterday.

I do own CDs by Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell, but I don't think of them as being major influences on my writing.

There are many in the Church as well as out of it who need to learn that Christianity is neither creed nor a ceremonial, but a life vitaly connected with a loving Christ.

Why aren't you afraid of me? I've seen my death, and you're not it.

I text my girlfriends. I look at Facebook. I check my e-mail. If I'm away from the news cycle more than a few hours, I feel out of touch.

Coaches are bridge builders. It's our job to build a bridge for our athletes to cross over.