Work at your craft, write daily, and follow your dreams because dreams do come true.

There's a thin, blurry line between humor and tragedy.

Things aren't ever what they seem to be when you first look at them. What's important is that you keep your mind wide open and try to understand what's going on from a lot of different angles.

I often tell young people that as a writer you are very powerful, that you can make absolutely anything happen.

I write because I love to. I'm very, very fortunate to have found something that I love doing that also earns my living. But to be honest, I'd write even if I weren't being paid to.

A bud is a flower-to-be. A flower in waiting. Waiting for just the right warmth and care to open up. It's a little fist of love waiting to unfold and be seen by the world. And that's you.

Just like when there's a time that a smart person knows enough is enough, there's a time when you know you've got to fight.

But you just gotta understand that that's the way it is and keep on steppin'.

I'm the same age as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth.

But don't ever call her ex-boyfriends by his name.

Wow. Who would want a fish for a pet when they could have a turtle?!

There is nothing so convincing as a thing well done.

Why do you want to touch me? I'm nothing. I'm no one.

I want kids to have a chance to dream of becoming something like I did in my life, and when you're living in a home that's dysfunctional and unhealthy that way, you don't dream like that.

You know, if I tell the press that I like long blonde hair, the next day there will be girls with long hair wigs outside waiting for me.

It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play.

Success takes communication, collaboration and, sometimes, failure.

Whatever kind of device or barrier or policy to secure the border, that's necessary to secure the border, then do it.

I pictured my mom, alone in our little apartment on the Upper East Side. I tried to remember the smell of her blue waffles in the kitchen. It seemed so far away.

I'd grown up thinking that a [sanitary toilet] was my right, when in fact it's a privilege - 2.5 billion people worldwide have no adequate toilet.

I believe in no final solutions.