They say productivity is the key to confidence, and confidence ... to productivity. And they're happy walking back and forth between these two rooms, each the excuse for the other.

Only half of writing is saying what you mean. The other half is preventing people from reading what they expected you to mean.

Nothing important comes with instructions.

What is more yours than what always holds you back?

The best way to know your faults is to notice which ones you accuse others of.

Writing is like washing windows in the sun. With every attempt to perfect clarity, you make a new smear.

When I am trying to write I turn on music so I can hear what is keeping me from hearing.

Sophistication is upscale conformity.

The happy and the suffering probably understand life equally well, but the sufferers may see a little more clearly how little it is that they understand.

It is the empty seats that listen most raptly.

All work is the avoidance of harder work.

I felt a tremendous distance between myself and everything real.

The creator and arbiter of beauty is the heart; to the male rattlesnake the female rattlesnake is the loveliest thing in nature.

I just think it's super amazing that the U.K. fans are so dedicated and loving. I love them, and being with them in person is an amazing feeling.

I'm standing up thinking. Anybody who wants to listen is welcome. If not, I'm happy to see them go.

Some days, it seems to me like the purpose of life is to convert energy into beauty.

They judge lest they be judged.

I refuse to be a doormat to any man. I will never allow anyone to push me around. I am my own mistress.

Dreams can be any size you want them to be. But the important thing is that you have one that is yours.

I saw you put rice in a toaster once," said Mae. "I was there when made the tin of beans explode." "It was faulty," Jamie protested, his eyes shifty. " I am sure of this.

The women's movement. . . has proved women's own worst enemy.