At the centre of every fairy tale lay a truth that gave the story its power

She watched the gap between ship and shore grow to a huge gulf. Perhaps this was a little like dying, the departed no longer visible to the others, yet both still existed, only in different worlds.

There is something about losing your mother that is permanent and inexpressable - a wound that will never quite heal.

Unexpected change is like a breath of fresh air -- a little brisk at first, but magic for the body and soul.

Tell the story that's in your heart, and don't hold back. Write a book the reader will want to melt into.

An event in the present evokes past sensations. But science couldn't explain how a foolish heart had the power to overrule common sense.

Insults sting but a little when they stem from a man's ignorance.

You're never alone when you're reading a book.

Fear and love were sometimes the same thing both necessary unavoidable. Now she understood that it was okay to bleed if you know how to heal.

Talent is required, but much of writing is a matter of craft, which develops with time, attention, patience and practice, like playing an instrument or learning to dance.

Teachers are by nature idealists, and they believe anything can be learned.

Love in marriage should be the accomplishment of a beautiful dream, and not, as it too often is, the end.

I used to be kind of bitter and jealous as well, but I get it. It's business.

There is nothing in the world that is not mysterious, but the mystery is more evident in certain things than in others: in the sea, in the eyes of the elders, in the color yellow, and in music.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Negotiating sugar trade in bilateral free trade agreements is a recipe for disaster for the U.S. sugar industry, and it is unnecessary.

I like to feel that every day or most days, I do a little bit of writing. I am a creature of habit in terms of the way I live.

Nothing substitutes for positive thinking. Nothing. It is more powerful than all the money, all the influence, all the 'friends in high places' on earth.

Because it is a radical act of freedom, creative achievement is a heroic process that requires, in all its permutations, specific strengths of character.

The only person who can really motivate you is you.

This is the room of the wolfmother wallpaper.