The language of the novel differs from the just-the-facts language of the old tales. It's robust and earthy, sometimes even baroque.

Things, very strange things, happen in folktales and there is never much attention given to the whys and wherefores.

But every age deserves its fashion and its forms, and no one can control what survives.

Why did people try to shush trouble away as if it were an unruly child?

Writing, for me, is always a dance between the critical part of my brain and the subconscious.

I guess I'm drawn to stories of people whose physicality puts them on the outside of things in order to explore the ways in which an identity is formed around these prevailing attitudes.

I never know where I'm headed when I'm working on a book.

We are like flowers always reaching up towards some shred of light. I find this wondrous, nearly magical, certainly brave.

I'm interested in endurance. People persist in the face of the most excruciating hardships.

As we change, the way in which we are perceived in terms of our relevance, our value, our beauty, and sexual potency changes.

We grow, we mature, some of us give birth, we age, we die.

Failure Is Not Permanent, So Is The Success. So, Don't Look Down Upon People Who Are Failed While You're Succeeded. Table Can Turn Anytime. Be Gentle To Every Creation, It Ain't Cost A Thing....

It appears your son was 85 percent curry!

LOVE FILL the WORLD with WONDER.

Poe, come on. Don't be like this." She avoided his gaze, and that was killing him. He'd rather she yell at him than give him nothing at all.

All the intelligence and talent in the world can't make a singer. The voice is a wild thing. It can't be bred in captivity. It is a sport, like the silver fox. It happens.

When consciousness has no thoughts in it, one can experience spirit and live in harmony with the universal forces.

I think you have to be weird to swim breaststroke.

If you come from a normal family, you immediately start playing the role of a boy, a girl a man or a woman, but I'm sure you'll agree with me that those are only roles, limited roles, at that.

A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.

Those same forces that drive a genius to create the things or ideas that entertain or enlighten us often gobble so much of his personality that he has none left for the social graces.