Everybody's in love when they're eighteen. And everybody gets dumped.

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.

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

You cannot move things by not moving.

For believers, there is much more to existence than simply passing out of one world and into another.

We have to construct communities of artists because they don't naturally exist in our culture.

Just as every girl should have a husband, preferably her own, so every culture must have its state, preferably its own.

You were the dead; theirs was the future.

When I did do good stuff in the past, it was because I was able to transcend the parts of my being that weren't healthy.

A lot of people don't enjoy their jobs, and it's one of the main things we like to complain about.

Before you invest in something, invest the time to understand it

One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine.

The three most important rules in selecting the right piece of real estate are location, location, location (and when we have periods of tight money I would add terms, terms, terms).