the habit of shutting doors behind us is invaluable to happiness; we must learn to shut life's doors to cut out the futile wind of past mistakes.

Young women especially have something invested in being nice people, and it's only when you have children that you realize you're not a nice person at all, but generally a selfish bully.

Let me remember that each life must follow its own course, and that what happens to other people has absolutely nothing to do with what happens to me.

What feeling is so nice as a child's hand in yours? So small, so soft and warm, like a kitten huddling in the shelter of your clasp.

Death is the perfect knowing.

simply to ask a blessing upon one's circumstances, whatever they are, is somehow to improve them, and to tap some mysterious source of energy and joy.

A child's hand in yours - what tenderness and power it arouses. You are instantly the very touchstone of wisdom and strength.

The man or woman who treasures his friends is usually solid gold himself.

When you write from the heart, you not only light the dark path of your readers, you light your own way as well.

Man is the only creature whose emotions are entangled with his memory.

There must be some deep psychological reason why we turn so instinctively toward home at this special time. . . . A place where every day will be Christmas, with everybody there together. At home.

No, no, I was only funny on stage, really. I, I, think I was funny as a person toward my classmates when I was very young. You know, when I was a child, up to about the age of 12.

When you want to touch the reader's heart, try to be colder. It gives their grief as it were, a background, against which it stands out in greater relief.

I worked at a daycare for a couple of years going through high school and college. I did youth sports camps. I ran all the camps through my college.

Join me in the pure atmosphere of gratitude for life.

All cities we have visited are precincts in this metropolis of the mind.

I'm half-black, half-white, so I basically put it like this: I can fit in anywhere. That's why I write so many stories from so many different perspectives, because I've seen so many.

If you cannot be positive, then at least be quiet.

The mad person who knows that they are mad is close to sanity.

In science, nothing is ever 100% proven.

Take what you can have. Rejoice in what you can save, and do not mourn your losses for too long.