Completed, most lives were alike in stages of living-joys, celebrations, crises, illusions, losses, sorrows.

Without heroes, we are all plain people and don't know how far we can go.

There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to go - if there are no doors or windows he walks through a wall.

First drafts are for learning what your story is about.

Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.

Teach yourself to work in uncertainty.

Life is a tragedy full of joy.

The purpose of freedom is to create it for others.

The wild begins where you least expect it, one step off your normal course

We can't all be friends and relatives as the world is; most of us have to be strangers.

The whole history of baseball has the quality of mythology.

Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.

Valuing a writer only for their diversity, but not their humanity or talent – that’s tokenism.

It was as unsatisfying as a handjob from someone wearing an oven mitt.

Writing, real writing, should leave a small sweet bruise somewhere on the writer . . . and on the reader.

Beauty is not pretty.

I hated the whole idea of being an actress. I used to throw up before every performance and cry afterward.

I like when things happen organically and make sense.

Changing schools and friends is hard on children and can often make them desperate and lonely enough to form closer ties with a sibling.

The movie stars and matinee idols are put into the public domain by photography. They become dreams that money can buy. They can be bought and thumbed more easily than public prostitutes.

Confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom.