She supposed it felt like freedom, if freedom was a fall into the unknown.

She had been given a wonderful gift: life. Sometimes it was cruelly taken away too soon, but it's what you did with it that counted, not how long it lasted.

A diary with no drawings of me in it? Where are the torrid fantasies? The romance covers?

I want to go to sleep and not wake up, but I don’t want to die.

The power to proclaim the greatest news in heaven or on earth was not given to the angels. It was given to redeemed men . . . Every Christian is to be a witness

...don't create snakes out of ropes. You have enough to worry about.

Montesquieu had the style of a genius; Buffon, the genius of style.

I've got a very peculiar sort of fame, based on being on the telly. It doesn't mean you have the lifestyle people expect.

There are no solids. There are no things. There are only interfering and non-interfering patterns operative in pure principle, and principles are eternal.

Some people want to call me an Appalachian writer, even though I know some people use regional labels to belittle.