When you work at street level you never know who's going to walk through your door.

In life, finding a voice is speaking and living the truth. Each of you is an original. Each of you has a distinctive voice. When you find it, your story will be told. You will be heard.

One thing you really have to watch as a writer is getting on a soapbox or pulpit about anything. You don't want to alienate readers.

You live your life today, Not tommorow, and certainly not yesterday.

Prisons are fascinating places, especially when the inmates are educated white-collar types.

Jesus preached more and taught more about helping the poor and the sick and the hungry than he did about heaven and hell. Shouldn't that tell us something?

When witnesses concoct lies, they often miss the obvious.

If you're gonna be stupid you gotta be tough.

Shame was an emotion he had abandoned years earlier. Addicts know no shame. You disgrace yourself so many times you become immune to it.

judge not that ye be not judged

I'm alone and outgunned, scared and inexperienced, but I'm right.

One day you may kiss a man you can’t breathe without, and find breath is of little consequence.”“Right, and one day my prince might come.”“I doubt he’ll be a prince, Ms. Lane. Men rarely are.

Character is made of duty and love and sympathy, and, above all, of living and working for others.

What's life if you're not enjoying it?

I don't have a warm personal enemy left. They've all died off. I miss them terribly because they helped define me.

The work is more important than the talking and the writing about the work.

You can show your daughter by the way you love and honor your wife that she should never settle for less.

Failure and well-disguised cowardice are more human and more beloved.

It's better if you have a strong opinion on any talk show.

Though I have usually posed as a Catholic, I have not done my duty for 15 years, and have not the slightest tincture of faith left.

Oh, we are going to be so happy away from all the things that almost got us but couldn't quite because we were too smart for them!