Your whole life you are really writing one book, which is an attempt to grasp the consciousness of your time and place– a single book written from different stages of your ability.

A desert is a place without expectation.

The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is.

A truly living human being cannot remain neutral.

The caged eagle become a metaphor for all forms of isolation, the ultimate in imprisonment. A zoo is prison.

Peace. The upland serenity of high altitude, the openness of grassland without indigenous bush or trees; the greening, yellowing or silver-browning that prevailed, according to season.

Writing is making sense of life.

Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.

I have failed at many things, but I have never been afraid.

Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole life and perhaps you've made sense of one small area.

Time is change; we measure its passage by how much things alter.

Your inner critic is simply a part of you that needs more self-love.

You’re not supposed to be in a relationship because it’s comfortable, it’s supposed to be because they make you a better person.

And go we all must, with a healthy lust of books we trust.

The first problem for all of us men and women is not to learn but to unlearn.

I grew up in the inner city and have spent a lot of time there and have dealt with a lot of patients from that area and recognize that we cannot have a strong nation if we have weak inner cities.

Well, I'll be damned. Oh, this is funny.

Dig deep and believe in yourself and have the self-confidence you need to forge ahead.

All of the great prophets of modern times have come from the desert and were uneducated: Mohammed, Jesus and myself.

I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step.

You never understand how dear your privacy is until you lose it.