Writing is work, but it's also a compulsion, and once you get your characters on paper, you can't abandon them. You have to respond to them.

It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive. Arrival often brings nothing but a sense of desolation and disappointment.

Life is so extraordinary. Wonderful surprises are just around the most unexpected corners.

It was good, and nothing good is truly lost. It stays part of a person, becomes part of their character. So part of you goes everywhere with me. And part of me is yours, forever

Happiness is making the most of what you have, and riches is making the most of what you've got.

She put out her hand and touched his forearm, as she would have touched some piece of porcelain or sculpture, just for the sheer animal pleasure of feeling its shape and curve beneath her fingertips.

The greatest gift a parent can leave a child is that parent's own independence.

And the wicked thing is, that when we're really upset, we always take it out on the people who are closest and whom we love the most.

Things happen they way they're meant to. There's a pattern and a shape to everything...Nothing happens without a reason...Nothing is impossible...(Page 180).

There's a war on. We don't know how anything's going to end. We just have to grasp each fleeting moment of joy as it whizzes by.

I wasn't good enough. I had a little talent but not enough. There is nothing more discouraging than having just a little talent.

Sacred soul searches to know the truth.

I'm not perfect, I'm beautifully imperfect

The radio was my pal. I was just crazy about it.

With the Internet, kids today learn things quicker than we do and they have everything there is to see, so you have to do more than just remake some old '70s film

I know all the problems of the schools. They're rigid, they're bureaucratic, they've got a lot of problems. But it's such an important institution, and holds such promise.

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

Requite injury with kindness.

I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born.

You might have extensive bouts of thinking exceedingly nasty thoughts, but because you are relating to those thoughts with mindfulness and compassion, that's considered good meditation.

I will try to disappoint you better than anyone ever has.