guilt to motherhood is like grapes to wine

If you do nothing unexpected, nothing unexpected happens.

Nothing happens, and nothing happens, and then everything happens.

There's no such thing as old age, there is only sorrow.

Only one thing registers on the subconscious mind: repetitive application - practice. What you practice is what you manifest.

I didn't even know I was a feminist until I read it on the back of one of my own books.

The desire for self-expression afflicts people when they feel there is something of themselves which is not getting through to the outside world.

Fiction stretches our sensibilities and our understanding, as mere information never can.

Marriage is a very difficult relationship for nearly everyone and I'm sure you shouldn't do it if you want a quiet little easy life.

She could see that to lose a sibling was hard: it could only seem unnatural:out of time, out of order, a vicious re-run of your own departure into nothingness.

Never defend yourself; agree with your critics, it takes the wind out of their sails.

Drinking the mystery punch that will always get her

In every life there are events that reshape one's sense of existence. Afterward, all is different and the past is dimmed.

Education should be one of our top funding priorities talking about it does not help the teachers and students who desperately need promises fulfilled.

Start small and with your own money.

I'm just a true Irish boy at heart. I'm just myself, I stick by my guns and I treat people the way I think they should be treated, regardless of their status. And I just have a laugh.

You must get money to chase you, but never let it catch up.

Envy is never general, but always very particular - at least envy of the kind one feels strongly.

There's a battle between what the cook thinks is high art and what the customer just wants to eat.

Occasionally, I'll dream I'm in the factory. That will help me write. Not creatively, but more like a prod. I don't want to go back there.

You've probably had somebody punch you in the stomach and it knocks the wind of you and you can't breathe. That's how I felt.