Men are prisoners of their genitalia and women are the keepers of the keys to paradise.

Without music, life is a journey through a desert.

It's impossible to explain to a Yankee what 'tacky' is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one.

I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island and I carried the sunshine of the low-country, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders.

I’ve never had anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.

The most powerful words in English are, 'Tell me a story.'

Here is all I ask of a book- give me everything. Everything, and don't leave out a single word.

I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.

There is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss.

The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life.

Whoever wants to hide a big scandal is best to stage a small one

We are all a collection of lost causes, stashed here so no one has to see just how wounded we are.

You can have ambition But not too much You should aim to be successful But not too successful Otherwise you will threaten the man

If you never take a chance, you will never be defeated - but you will never accomplish anything either.

I don't want to be an action star, an action star's life is so short. I want my life to get longer, I want my career to get longer.

We never begin worship. We aim it.

We men do nothing but lie and make ourselves important. Speech was invented for the purpose of magnifying all of our sensations and impressions — perhaps so that we could believe in them.

I was trying to change things on the outside and you can't. You've got to feel it on the inside and everything else will change.

A longing for the dance stirs in the buried life.

I don't think I knew any of my father's friends - male friends - by their real names. I remember them only by their nicknames.