And Quotes
A story should be managed so that it should suggest interesting things to the reader instead of the author's doing all the thinking for him, and setting it before him in black and white.
When you're the victim of the behavior, it's black and white; when you're the perpetrator, there are a million shades of gray.
Just write and love what you're writing. And if you're not loving what you're writing, take a look at why and fix that.
Survivors are so often re-victimized by a system that demands they prove their purity and innocence.
The division between faith and reason is a half-measure, till it is frankly admitted that faith has to do with fiction, and reason with fact.
A wild and crazy weekend involves sitting on the front porch, smoking a cigar, reading a book.
There's a couple things you don't talk about in life, and that's race, religion and politics. I try to make sure I don't talk about politics at all.
Exercise, not philosophically and with religious gravity undertaken, but the wild romping activities of a spirited girl who runs up and down as though her veins were full of wine.
The Dalai Lama said that he thinks mother's love is the best symbol for love and compassion, because it is totally disinterested.
If you can see the terrorists as a relative who's dangerously sick and we have to give them medicine and the medicine is love and compassion. There's nothing better.
There were people I know that got upset that I kiss people. I kiss them for luck and love, that's all. That's what my mother did to me.
Complex, statistically improbable things are by their nature more difficult to explain than simple, statistically probable things.
I have six brothers and sisters. We all look totally different: blonde hair, curly hair, green eyes, dark eyes, dark skin, light skin. It's just how it is.
It was like I existed in a kind of parallel universe, thinking thoughts and feelings that no one else understood.
Real people aren't perfect; they fall down and mess up and screw up. Those are the kind of people that I look to, and I've always aspired to just be authentic.
The fight against hunger and poverty is also predicated on the creation of a world order that accords priority to social and economic development.
Man is physical as well as metaphysical, a thing of shreds and patches, borrowed unequally from good and bad ancestors, and a misfit from the start.
This crusade to separate church and state is only one expression of my raison d'être. I'm an atheist, but I'm also an anarchist, and a feminist, and an integrationist.
There is nothing in the whole world which abides. All things are in a state of ebb and flow, and every shadow passes away. Even time itself, like a river, is constantly gliding away .
When you are down and out something always turns up - and it is usually the noses of your friends.
Only in Christ can men and women find answers to the ultimate questions that trouble them. Only in Christ can they fully understand their dignity as persons created and loved by God.
Why was it that when noughts committed criminal acts, the fact that they were noughts was always pointed out? The banker was a Cross. The newsreader didn't even mention it.
Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.
It was a conversation that I didn't want to have with my parents to say mom and dad I missed my flight.
People can say what they like about the eternal verities, love and truth and so on, but nothing's as eternal as the dishes.
They say that extroverts are unhappier than introverts and have to compensate for this by constantly proving to themselves how happy and contented and at ease with life they are.
For politicians truth and falsehood are unimportant. So I never could become a politician - not even a church politician.
Life is never a straight line - it's peaks and valleys. Why would you want to be the same person every day of your life?
Really, every woman is an example to me, because as women we go through so much pain. We have to live this perfect life when we are messed up inside. We all go through trials and tribulations.
In this new era of social media the rules of the road have changed significantly, yet the basic yearning for true connectivity and love have not.
As a tree, even though it has been cut down, is firm so long as its root is safe, and grows again, thus, unless the feeders of thirst are destroyed, the pain (of life) will return again and again.
In Japan, mothers insist on achievement and accomplishment as a sign of love and respect. Thus to fail places children in a highly shamed situation.
Everything is cause and effect. If you don't move, nothing will move with you, and nothing will move toward you.
I think heroism is when somebody really goes above and beyond the call of duty and does something outstanding for either themselves or somebody else.
Women play cellos and violins in symphony orchestras. They're playing Beethoven and Bach. What do you mean they can't play rock and roll?
From the time we're born, our brothers and sisters are our collaborators and coconspirators, our role models and our cautionary tales.
A lot of solos I hear sound so incredible, but they sound like somebody practicing. They sound a bit soulless - fiery, but at the same time, lacking in spirit and soul.
To voice something you're feeling and put observations into words with another person who is totally present is a creative act embodying soul and love.
Money and power are not your true rewards. Your name, your principles, your impeccable standards, your virtuous conduct, and remains an influence with others long after you are gone.
No one cares / who is better / who is worse / who has more / who has less. / Content in our connectedness / we are brothers and sisters / after all.
Cease to be a disobedient child in the school of experience, and begin to learn, with humility and patience, the lessons that are set for your ultimate perfection.