Those times, I tried to think of something happy, something I'd liked - but not something I loved, for that made it worse.

Naturally curly hair is a curse, and don't ever let anyone tell you different.

I have gone to [this bookshop] for years, always finding the one book I wanted - and then three more I hadn’t known I wanted.

I don't want to be married just to be married. I can't think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can't talk to, or worse, someone I can't be silent with.

I think you learn more if you're laughing at the same time.

The first rule of snooping is to come at it sideways.

Men are more interesting in books than they are in real life.

Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. How delightful if that were true.

one year as his wife, and id have become one of those abject, quaking women who look at their husbands when someone asks them a question. I've always despised that type, but I see how it happens now

Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.

I hope, too, that my book will illuminate my belief that love of art - be it poetry, storytelling, painting, sculpture, or music - enables people to transcend any barrier man has yet devised.

The mechanics of Nature ensures that the shadow of yesterday doesn't eclipse the dawn of tomorrow.

The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.

Let them say what they wish behind your back. You need only be strong enough that they don't say it to your face.

Their silence comfortable. Something unfolding. But what? Not love, which wrenched and wounded. Not love, which came only once.

People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they?

Energy begets energy.

My personal opinion is that you can't be racist towards white people. You can be prejudiced about them, but being prejudiced isn't an illegal act, whereas being racist can be.

You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?

As far as Im concerned, I didnt dream - ever.

I'll bet I'm as old as you are." "I'm older than Sanskrit." "Well, I was waitress at the Last Supper." "I'm so old I remember when McDonald's had only sold a hundred burgers." "You win.