Think of a ballet dancer at the barre. Plie, eleve, battement tendu. She is practicing, because she knows that there is no difference between practice and art. The practice is the art.

Everything you need to know about life can be learned from a genuine and ongoing attempt to write

To forget oneself-to lose oneself in the music, in the moment- that kind of absorption seems to be at the heart of every creative endeavor.

The writer’s life requires courage, patience, empathy, openness. It requires the ability to be alone with oneself. Gentle with oneself. To be disciplined, and at the same time, take risks.

Reflection may be essential to a scholar, but it’s taboo in social intercourse.

No one cares about the art of the lie at this point. They insist on impressing with the truth. See me! Look at me! Look at who I am! Look at who I want you to think I am!

A girl with brains ought to do something with them besides think.

I don't use a pen. I write with a goose quill dipped in venom.

The world does not need a war against 'terrorism', it needs a culture of peace based on human rights for all.

Land is something one should never sell. It is the only thing left when all else is gone

All of us have an 'inner clock,' a certain pace at which we function most comfortably and effectively.

I learned to write by writing. I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work, which meant that life did not feel like work.

Animals outline their territories with their excretions, humans outline their territories by ink excretions on paper.

Jesus cannot be just liked. His claims make us either kill him or crown him.