When Tolstoy wrote that all happy families are alike, what he meant was that there are no happy families.

You mustn’t be so open-minded that your brains fall out.

Addiction isnt about substance - you arent addicted to the substance, you are addicted to the alteration of mood that the substance brings.

There is no such thing as expecting too much.

Writers often write their best when they are feeling their worst

I believe that the memoir is the novel of the 21st century; it’s an amazing form that we haven’t even begun to tap…we’re just getting started figuring out what the rules are.

The actual American childhood is less Norman Rockwell and Walt Disney than Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.

Dogs are great teachers. They are at home in the world. They live in the moment, and they force us to stay there with them. Dogs love us unconditionally, not for our bodies or bank accounts.

Womens currency is their looks. Like it or not, the most powerful woman is an 18-year-old woman.

Personal experience is the lightning of the soul; it transforms the heart in ways that leave the brain behind.

Death is terrifying because it is so ordinary. It happens all the time.

A versifier passes through the sound

I don't desire to be intelligent, but I do desire to be loving and kind.

However I dress it up, I was a spy and I am not proud of it.

Go over to Greece with the Iliad and Odyssey. These have elements of history, and they have non-historical elements. It's very difficult to pull them apart. And I think there's not much reason to.

Victory is not the absence of problems, it is the presence of power.

What I'm not - I can't control other people's campaigns. If they decide that's what they want to do with their time and money, they certainly have a right to do it.

If you are noticing what you appreciate and noticing what you are grateful for, you can't be noticing what you don't like.

Courage is not the absence of fear — it s inspiring others to move beyond it.

The Gospel teaches us what Jesus' kingdom requires of us... Reminds us that closeness and tenderness are the rules of life.

Milton, thou should'st be living at this hour.