There are times in your life when, despite the steel weight of your memories and the sadness that seems to lie at your feet like a shadow, you suddenly and strangely feel perfectly okay.

The living carry us inside them like pearls. We survive only so long as they remember us.

People who read Anne Lamott, like people who read Anne Rice, believe that tragedy is romantic, but the people who read Anne Lamott believe it ironically.

There was no one alive who did not contribute his share of mystery to the world.

I write out of gratitude for all the books I have loved over the years.

The books you love best - those are the immensity of the sea.

She had the same responsibility as everybody else did: to live as softly as she could in the world.

Worry is a mean-faced dwarf who beats on your heart like a kettledrum.

I always try to stay as quiet as possible about a book until it's finished.

I had always been the kind of boy who was quick to laugh and quick to cry.

With every sentence she writes, Davis freshens the senses. Her novels achieve a tone that’s unlike anyone else’s, creating an atmosphere you don’t so much interpret as breathe.

Success is only possible to those whose hearts are willing and ready to embrace hard work

Some angels are too good to live their entire lives in this inferno. They come to Earth for only a short time because they have a mission.

our dispassionate acceptance of attrition...[can] be matched by a full use of everything that has ever happened in all the long wonderful-ghastly years to free a person's mind from his body.

Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.

The true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

I don't work on a project unless I believe that it will dramatically improve life for a bunch of people.

Some stories we know well and some we learn as we go. Being able to shape and share these stories into new perspectives and new ideas is incredibly gratifying.

If your intention is to give, you will not be concerned with how your actions are perceived.

I live in New York City, so there's so much stimulation when you walk outside, it does not require a television in the home.

General Lee, this is no place for you. These men behind you are Georgians and Virginians. They have never failed you and will not fail you here. Will you boys?