There are much more important qualities to have than a docile disposition.

It’s probably my job to tell you life isn’t fair, but I figure you already know that. So instead, I’ll tell you that hope is precious, and you’re right not to give up.

I love how you still think if you tell me to do something, I'll just check my brain at the door and do it.

Please tell me you're not that stupid.Rachel to Melkin

I never thought it was fair that anatomy decided what my brain was fit for.

[I]t's the child writer who has figured out, early on, that writing is about saving your soul.

I never said nothing...""I know you never! I could hear you not saying anything! You've got the loudest silences I ever did hear from anyone who wasn't dead!

Keep dreaming, Keep hoping, Keep lovingKeep giving, keep motivating, Keep forgiving, Keep praying, Keep tithing, Keep sharing your testimony.

When a self-evident truth is presented, don't be surprised when self-centeredness fights back...

The word courage - God, I love that word. Words are so important to me.

I grew up treating a life as a writer as a career in letters, one devoted to many kinds of writing. And so it seemed normal to study both fiction writing and the literary essay as an undergrad.

America is just so imperative that we have the right justices.

If you don't step across the threshold of what you already know into the world of challenges, you never truly measure yourself.

Educated men - "civilized," as Fourier used to say with disdain - tremble at the idea that society might some day be without judges, police, or gaolers.

Of course I should love to throw a toothbrush into a bag, and just go, quite vaguely, without any plans or even a real destination. It is the Wanderlust.