Talent is required, but much of writing is a matter of craft, which develops with time, attention, patience and practice, like playing an instrument or learning to dance.

She watched the gap between ship and shore grow to a huge gulf. Perhaps this was a little like dying, the departed no longer visible to the others, yet both still existed, only in different worlds.

There is something about losing your mother that is permanent and inexpressable - a wound that will never quite heal.

Unexpected change is like a breath of fresh air -- a little brisk at first, but magic for the body and soul.

Tell the story that's in your heart, and don't hold back. Write a book the reader will want to melt into.

An event in the present evokes past sensations. But science couldn't explain how a foolish heart had the power to overrule common sense.

Insults sting but a little when they stem from a man's ignorance.

You're never alone when you're reading a book.

Fear and love were sometimes the same thing both necessary unavoidable. Now she understood that it was okay to bleed if you know how to heal.

At the centre of every fairy tale lay a truth that gave the story its power

Teachers are by nature idealists, and they believe anything can be learned.

Books are another kind of magic.

He was her moon. He balanced out her tides.

But I guessed she would never stop wanting more for me, more from me. Maybe that’s what mothers did.

Well, I love what you would call boys' music, you know, the prodigy, banging techno, music that girls generally don't like.

I think it comes easy to work hard. I was always taught, don't short-change yourself. Keep working to get better.

I think that you do get a little extra jolt of confidence when you win an Emmy.

A perception, sudden as blinking, that subject and object are one, will lead to a deeply mysterious understanding; and by this understanding you will awaken to the truth.

I think all great wrestlers appreciate a good BATTLE

The end of a wedding reception is always so depressing. And only the bride and groom are spared, jetting off into the sunset while the rest of us wake up the next morning to just another day.

Inflation takes from the ignorant and gives to the well informed.