my life has been saved over and over again by picking up a book in which someone captured the whole experience of being despised and not dying.

Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is that if we are not beautiful to each other, we cannot know beauty in any form.

Change, when it comes, cracks everything open.

Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.

Fiction is a piece of truth that turns lies to meaning.

Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is the way you can both hate and love something you are not sure you understand.

I did not begin with craft, I began with strong feelings and worked toward craft.

Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside.

One of the strengths I derive from my class background is that I am accustomed to contempt.

The only magic we have is what we make in ourselves, the muscles we build up on the inside, the sense of belief we create from nothing.

I have wanted everything as a writer and a woman, but most of all a world changed utterly by my revelations.

A man can’t talk of true happiness if he has never known true love—the trusting, selfless and unconditional love that I took for granted.

Saw a little girl touch a big bug and shout, "I conquered my fear! YES!" and calmly walk away. I was inspired.

The essence of life: be good to all souls like you seek them to be good to your soul.

But after much thought, I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing more difficult in this world than to surrender completely. This is one of man's greatest sorrows.

People are more likely to believe a big lie than a small one.

There is a star above us which unites souls of the first order, though worlds and ages separate them.

I really hate to be Debbie Downer right now, because everyone would love to say, "Yeah, we're finally doing something on climate!

One day the world will look upon research upon animals as it now looks upon research on human beings.

If you don't need God to pull off what you are planning, you are not dreaming big enough.

When times are tough, vision is the first casualty. Before conditions can improve, it is the first thing we must recover.