Writers matter in a society to the extent that we can help that society hear its unvoiced longing, encounter its erased and disregarded selves, break with complacency, numbness, despair.

The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.

Change is not a threat to your life, but an invitation to live.

There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep and still be counted as warriors.

My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.

We must use what we have to invent what we desire.

Courage is not defined by those who fought and did not fall, but by those who fought, fell and rose again.

The beauty of darkness is how it lets you see.

If you are trying to transform a brutalized society into one where people can live in dignity and hope, you begin with the empowering of the most powerless. You build from the ground up.

Until we know the assumptions in which we are drenched, we cannot know ourselves.

Language is power... Language can be used as a means of changing reality.

Treasure the magic moments for the gems they are.

In nothing do we fail more, as a Mission, than in lack of tact and politeness.

Some are blessed with musical ability, others with good looks. Myself, I was blessed with modesty.

There are certain natures to whom work is nothing, the act of work everything.

I followed my heart without breaking any rules.

You don't move just because you want to go from this point to that point - the body has to be using the words as well as you vocally use the words.

A lot of those people aren't their best salesmen. They're the opposite of a salesperson and I think there's something attractive about that.

The strong experience of nature... is the necessary basis for all conception of art on which rests the grandeur and beauty of all future work.

Imagining the overthrow of the current political system is the only way I can be enthused about politics.

Writing makes no noise, except groans, and it can be done everywhere, and it is done alone.