Labor! all labor is noble and holy! Let thy great deeds be thy prayer to thy God.

An exile, ill in heart and frame,-- A wanderer, weary of the way;-- A stranger, without love's sweet claim On any heart, go where I may!

No grief so soft, no pain so sweet, as love's delicious melancholy.

And wheresoever, in his rich creation, Sweet music breathes--in wave, or bird, or soul-- 'Tis but the faint and far reverberation Of that great tune to which the planets roll!

Better confide and be deceiv'd, A thousand times, by treacherous foes, Than once accuse the innocent, Or let suspicion mar repose.

Labor is life! 'Tis the still water faileth; Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth; Keep the watch wound, for the dark rust assaileth.

To hallow'd duty Here with a loyal and heroic heart, Bind we our lives.

He whom nature thus bereaves, Is ever fancy's favourite child; For thee enchanted dreams she weaves Of changeful beauty, bright and wild.

And yet we check and chide The airy angels as they float about us, With rules of so-called wisdom, till they grow The same tame slaves to custom and the world.

With strength to meet sorrow, and faith to endure

Love is the greatest of educators.

For every God there is a Satan, and because God made all of us godly, there is a Satan in us all.

I was never that interested in movies. I was interested in them as a thing, but I didn't want to make movies. I always wanted to draw and paint.

Must's a schoolroom in the month of may

I wish always to be quoted as George Eliot.

I'm religiously celibate except in LA, NOLA, FLA, because there is certainly no God in any of those places. So unless you live in one of those places I'm really no good to you.

I can't stand outside myself and be anybody else.

As writers, we are exploring the mystery, the mystery of existence.

When you write for children and young adults, you have much more affect and influence on them than when you write for adults. The books that get us through our childhood stay with us for life.

Music has an immediate effect. If you want to go beyond that and look underneath, film is a good way of explaining.

Of course there is nothing the matter with the stars It is my emptiness among them While they drift farther away in the invisible morning