The delicate sensitivity of a frightened rattlesnake.

I have a secret passion for mercy. . . but justice is what keeps happening to people.

Nothing is wrong with California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure.

The surprise with which a detective novel concludes should set up tragic vibrations which run backward through the entire structure.

The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world of disasters.

There are certain families whose members should all live in different towns - different states, if possible - and write each other letters once a year.

Hell lies at the bottom of the human heart.

When there's trouble in a family, it tends to show up in the weakest member. And all the other members of the family know that. They make allowances for the one in trouble.

The walls were lined with books, many of them in foreign languages, like insulation against the immediate present.

Freud was one of the greatest influences on me. He made myth into psychiatry, and I've been trying to turn it back into myth again.

An ugly woman with a gun is a terrible thing.

it was being written in the East that 'Sufism was formerly a reality without a name: now it is a name without a reality'.

Keep Calm and Bend Over

Happiness is not that easy to achieve, but having a handsome husband, a beautiful baby, and a great job helps.

Money is just the poor man's credit card.

There are so many unbelievable words... But that doesn't mean I have a favorite word.

Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime.

People are quite frequently eccentric.

If you want to live as a Christian, get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Dare to take chances, lest you leave your talent buried in the ground.

Beyoncé built her f–king foundation from the bottom. I think that’s the exact career every female artist wants to have.