She had so mastered the strategies of camouflage that her own history had seemed a series of well-placed mirrors that kept her hidden from herself.

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.

I know the answer! The answer lies within the heart of all mankind! The answer is twelve? I think I'm in the wrong building.

Study to learn, do not study to pass".

If today is not your day, then be happy for this day shall never return. And if today is your day, then be happy now for this day shall never return.

Turn your failure into a fairy tale of success and triumph.

All the windows of my heart I open to the day.

First we need to rethink the terms and recognize that we've imported this language from the technocratic class, from Silicon Valley, that talks about openness and transparency.

Why in the world do the insurance companies get to be the boss of birth? That's what I want to know.

I associate creativity with independent music.

If you live among wolves you have to act like a wolf.

If we were a primitive society, movie stars would be gods.