The choices I didn’t make are almost as ruinous as the ones I did.

Among the worst things about growing old is the loss of those irreplaceable friends who added richness and depth to your life.

I envy the tireless intimacy of women’s friendship, its lastingness, and its unbendable strength.

I don’t know when reading books became the most essential thing about me, but it happened over the years and I found myself the most willing servant of what I considered a rich habit.

Moonrise is a fabulous novel and my damn wife wrote it and that’s me up there near Highlands shouting it out to the hills.

It eases my soul that I share a house with [Cassandra King] a novelist of such rare and distinctive gifts.

My father managed to change his entire life after I wrote a novel about his brutal regime as a family man. It took resoluteness and courage for my father to change, and I need to acknowledge that.

It’s the great surprise of my life that I ended up loving [my father] so much.

I have always been attracted to male writers who can demonstrate their love and affection for women with ease, yet not draw attention to themselves.

I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language.

I have yet to meet an English teacher who assigned a book to damage a kid.

There was a moment in my life when I really wanted to kill myself. And there was one other moment when I was close to that. . . . But even in my most jaded times, I had some hope and that was him.

You are wise only if despite of being capable of taking a revenge & holding onto a grudge, you choose to forgive!

To learn to draw is to draw and draw and draw.

Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found

You are bigger than your circumstances.

And the case of butterflies so rich it looks As if all summer settled there and died.

He that would eat the nut must crack the shell.

All education must be self-education.

Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him.

The ad in the paper said 'Big Sale. Last Week.' Why advertise? I already missed it. They're just rubbing it in.