I had my bully, and it was excruciating. Not only the bully, but the intimidation I felt.

I've had aunts and uncles who not only haven't read my books but could hardly believe that I was a writer.

It's amazing that the heart makes no noise when it cracks.

Everybody sins, Francis. The terrible thing is that we love our sins. We love the thing that makes us evil.

And he did see--that life was rotten, that there were no heroes, really, and that you couldn't trust anybody, not even yourself.

Why did the wise guys always accuse other people of being wise guys?

They don't actually want you to do your own thing, not unless it's their thing too.

I have lived a thousand lives lost within the pages of a book.

The possibility that hope comes out of hopelessness and that the opposite of things carry the seeds of birth - love out of hate, good out of evil. Didn't flowers grow out of dirt?

Affection is one of the most neglected words in the English language, that people throw the word love around like confetti when they mean affection.

He hated to think of his own life stretching ahead of him that way, a long succession of days and nights that were fine - not good, not bad, not great, not lousy, not exciting, not anything.

It's worth making time to find the things that really stir your soul. That’s what makes you really feel alive. You have to say ‘no’ to other things you’re used to, and do it with all your heart.

It’s OKAY to be scared. Being scared means you’re about to do something really, really brave.

I can't even produce a metaphor for the drug world anymore. I don't even like the phrase the drug world since the phrase implies a different world.

Thank you Father for another day, for another week, for another month and for another year. Your grace is sufficient for me.

With you, there's always music.

Let no one expect anything of certainty from astronomy, lest if anyone take as true that which has been constructed for another use, he go away... a bigger fool than when he came to it.

I obviously invented Solipsism

I think every writer doubts themselves, every day. You procrastinate because you're afraid. You're always afraid it's not going to be as good as you want it to be.

It occurred to me that a lot of beauty has to do with believing it yourself. That half of what we see is just the way it is presented.

Not every one of our desires can be immediately gratified. We’ve got to learn to wait patiently for our dreams to come true, especially on the path we’ve chosen.