Writing seems to be the only profession people imagine you can do by thinking about doing it.

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

A finished person is a boring person.

There is a little boy inside the man who is my brother... Oh, how I hated that little boy. And how I love him too.

After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'm enough.'

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.

There is a lot of talk now about metal detectors and gun control. Both are good things. But they are no more a solution than forks and spoons are a solution to world hunger.

Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.

You are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life ... Your entire life ... Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.

America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.

My mom and dad put my brother and sister through university and they were very keen for us to have an academic background just to give us a chance.

So I was hugely thrilled that my first scene ever on camera was with Hal Holbrook.

A lot of the time, I'm just smart enough to be unhappy.

When a man or woman, young, or old, takes a place on the picket line for even a day or two, he will never be the same again.

there is undoubtedly something irritating about the favorites of fortune.

You'll never attain it unless you know the feeling.

I had still never read one of the Bond books when the movie Dr. No came out.

Helping Africans navigate the transition to modernity with a huge, wonderful wildlife resource still intact.

I wanted to do something really visual and photogenic.

Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin.