I've just finished my next collection, Possible Side Effects, and I'm now working on a collection of holiday stories as well as a memoir about my relationship with my father.

You would be amazed by what you can give up, lose, or break, and yet still be a person who gets happy over brownies.

...handsome people are always interesting to watch. But a handsome person in crisis is riveting.

You need to grab your dream out of the sky like it's a kite and pinch the string through your fingers until you reach the spool.

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.

I can't tell you how much I love Target and Costco, that kind of culture, because it's something I never felt a part of. I've always felt like a tourist because I have never fit in anywhere.

Should I just sit down, right here at carousel seven, and shake until somebody's arms are around me and they're saying, 'It's okay, I'm here, I'm here, come with me to the institute.

You are allowed to be alive. You are allowed to be somebody different. You are allowed to not say goodbye to anybody or explain a single thing to anyone, ever.

His laugh is made if porch swings and lemonade

But I can also write in crappy motel rooms, while standing in line, or sitting in the dentist's chair.

I wouldn't want to waste any of my brain cells on forgiving if it's holding me back.

If you didn’t fall down, you would never have learned how to pick yourself up.

Be inspired by possibilities and never be discouraged by obstacles

Kiss the lips upon me once, and I shall never tell.

For me, the peculiar qualities of faith are a logical outcome of this level of biological organization.

A human-being is not a human-being while his tendencies include self-indulgence, covetousness, temper and attacking other people

I like to see people who are survivors wearing my shoes. I am fascinated by people who can bounce back.

In my book, I was trying to get into my own soul.

People can't really place me. They're not really sure who I am. Sometimes they think I'm Helen Hunt. Sometimes they think I'm Laura Dern.

Democracy comes naturally to him who is habituated normally to yield willing obedience to all laws, human or divine.

He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap.