What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion.

You know, you can steel your heart against any kind of trouble, any kind of horror. But the simple act of kindness from a complete stranger will unstitch you.

In this time of the Internet and nonfiction, to be on an actual bookshelf in an actual bookstore is exciting in itself.

What we know about who we are comes from stories. It's the agents of our imagination who really shape who we are.

The privilege of being a writer is that you have this opportunity to slow down and to consider things.

People think that writing is writing, but actually writing is editing. Otherwise, you're just taking notes

My friend Ronald Gottesman says...that the cause of all our trouble is the belief in an essential, pure identity: religious, ethnic, historical, ideological.

You can count on Scandinavian literature for a certain kind of darkness, a modern mythic style.

Men do communicate, often very directly, but women sometimes cannot accept how simple what we have to say is. We seldom play games--we aren't that sophisticated.

Before you speak, my friend, remember, a spiritual man contain his anger. Angry words are like slap in de face.

Time was the only variable in every equation of power and oppression--how long before the pot boiled over.

One gets so used to one's own horrors, one forgets how they must seem to other people.

rain began to beat at the narrow lattice windows in the stop-and-start manner of an untalented child practicing scales at the piano.

It takes money to run political campaigns. This is a cancer growing on the soul of our democracy.

And you treat me wonderfully and keep all your promises.

In high school I was always thinking, 'Should I be doing more? What else should I be doing?' Now I know it will all come to me. I just have to trust my path, so that's very different.

Here's the way I look at it. President Bush has uranium-tipped bunker busters and I have puns. I think he'll be OK.

Submission to the Scriptures is submission to God. Rebellion against the Scriptures is rebellion against God

My line is all based on what I would wear, what I love to wear... It's very selfish! The first thing I ask myself is, "Is this something I would want for myself?" If so, I make it.

Never interrupt me when I'm eating a banana.

The satisfaction of life May not be ours, But the beauty of hope Is all ours.