I don't think it's shameful to admit that some days your time can be better spent reading than writing.

Perhaps this is how you know you're doing the thing you're intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it's a waste of time.

Probably I, like a lot of people, became a writer in imitation of or in homage to the books I enjoyed. When you're so captivated by something, you think, could I do that? Hmm, let me try

We all make mistakes, don't we? But if you can't forgive yourself, you'll always be an exile in your own life.

People who think my books are autobiographical, which they're not, credit me with having a much better memory than I do. I do, however, have a powerful imagination

I don't really have special rituals, but I don't try to write fiction unless I have a minimum of a few hours. For me, it takes a while to settle into a mode where I'm truly concentrating

We have to make mistakes, its how we learn compassion for others

I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely.

Obviously the bar is much higher now for a behavior to be scandalous. Social media has really changed the way people live. It's not a new impulse; it's just being enacted in a new way.

I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors

I just think that people are complicated, both men and women. It happens that I write more about women.

Silence is not our heritage but our destiny

Inspiration is that state in which mind and heart are connected.

I think the culture can absorb so many people writing poetry and trying to earn their living in poetry.

In mysticism we deal with dreaming and the fields of perception.

Some people that are heroes to some can be looked at by another group of people as villains. As far as a middle point, just speaking for myself, that's exactly what to avoid.

If nothing is random, and everything is predetermined, how can there be free will? The answer to that is simple. Nothing is predetermined; it is determined, or was determined, or will be determined.

Questions draw us together. Answers push us apart.

God is not interested in our public displays of piety. He's not interested in religion in terms of the outward show. He's interested in godliness.

I'm the hardest person to buy a gift for.

It is proof of sincerity, which I value above all things; as, between those who practice it, falsehood and malice work their efforts in vain.