I always wanted to be a fiction writer, but I couldn't figure out how you could be a novelist and make any money, which continues to be a problem for novelists the world over.

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

A finished person is a boring person.

There is a little boy inside the man who is my brother... Oh, how I hated that little boy. And how I love him too.

After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'm enough.'

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.

There is a lot of talk now about metal detectors and gun control. Both are good things. But they are no more a solution than forks and spoons are a solution to world hunger.

Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.

You are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life ... Your entire life ... Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.

America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.

I think I possess because I do not try to give, Trying to give, I see that I have nothing.

I never could have achieved the success that I have without setting physical activity and health goals.

For all may have, If they dare to try, a glorious life, or grave.

A really good picture looks as if it's happened at once. It's an immediate image.

I could never endorse any candidate because not one of them is saying that which would save America from the Wrath of Allah (God).

When I was 5, my mother threw a party, and a friend and I wrote and performed a play called The Dutch Doll.

We walk through so many myths of each other and ourselves; we are so thankful when someone sees us for who we are and accepts us.

The military is a meritocracy. It's an up or out. It's shaped like a pyramid.

What I bring to the table is a huge enthusiasm and love for this stuff.