Though I revise constantly as I write, I will usually revise much of the work again after I've reached the ending.

Memory blurs, that's the point. If memory didn't blur you wouldn't have the fool's courage to do things again, again, again, that tear you apart.

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul.

I never change, I simply become more myself.

How lovely this world is, really: one simply has to look.

Our enemy is by tradition our savior, in preventing us from superficiality.

Read widely, and without apology. Read what you want to read, not what someone tells you you should read.

Night comes to the desert all at once, as if someone turned off the light.

Keep a light, hopeful heart. But ­expect the worst.

See, people come into your life for a reason. They might not know it themselves, why. You might not know it. But there's a reason. There has to be

Be your own editor/critic. Sympathetic but merciless!

Great books make a great life.

He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time.

Hope is a motivation for pressing ahead, a sustained effort and a joy that the promised will be fulfilled at the right time.

Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.

I've always thought, and it gets tested at times, that I have a great faith in the fundamental goodness of human beings.

My whole life I've been trying to prove people wrong. I ended up beating everything.

When I say 'Clean water was only served to the fairer skin,' what I'm saying is we're making product with chitlins. T-shirts! That's the most we can make.

Saturday afternoon, although occurring at regular and well-foreseen intervals, always takes this railway by surprise.

Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.