To note an artist's limitations is but to define his talent.

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.

Success is never so interesting as struggle

Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening.

The sky was a midnight-blue, like warm, deep, blue water, and the moon seemed to lie on it like a water-lily, floating forward with an invisible current.

The fact that I was a girl never damaged my ambitions to be a pope or an emperor.

It takes a great deal of experience to become natural.

Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen.

Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky.

The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.

The end is nothing; the road is all.

Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity.

PHRENOLOGY, n. The science of picking the pocket through the scalp. It consists in locating and exploiting the organ that one is a dupe with.

Once or twice I've been described as a light comedian. I consider this the most accurate description of my abilities I've ever seen.

chaos: it has no plural.

A tin roof is one of the greatest indicators of prosperity in the developing world.

Now I look back and think if I'd spent more time enjoying myself instead of crying into my pillow over men, my 20s would have been fabulous!

I read my own books sometimes to cheer me when it is hard to write, and then I remember that it was always difficult, and how nearly impossible it was sometimes.

I had observed people whose identity crises around race seemed analogous to other people's identity crises around gender.

When I hear Governor Mitt Romney in his speech talk about how the Republican Party must stand for legitimate conservative values. They don't.

The most destitute person in the world is the one without a smile.