You can sometimes find something good on the other side of doing something very, very painful.

Teaching writing puts you on the point of a pin in terms of what you want your own writing to be.

I sometimes think that we expect too much resolution in this world.

Early in the phase of being in a female body, there's all this desire that comes at you, a lot of it hostile, a lot of it dangerous, a lot of it ruinous.

I do some messing around with things, not necessarily about me but about place and people and the things around.

I grew up flying over oceans and moving and sailing.

There's a lot of water in everything I've ever written. There's always oceans and pools.

In order to have a real life of any romance, there has to be a level of fantasy.

I don't think you can have an imagination without having fantasy, and you can't have that rich a life without an imagination.

That's what perfect means. You're finished.

I've always wanted to figure out how to do a walking story. I'd never figured out how to do one and have it work or be interesting or have anything that it's about.

When you commune with your ever-present inner calm, you are released from the madness and pain of all outer turmoil.

Its decision to suck up an extra helping of toddler soup would cost it dearly.

Richness and fat does need, In logic clever fine deeds, But paunches never do breed, Fine thoughts or sublime seeds.[45] - 2

Everyone kept asking me to stay, so I did.

People are starting to go on about my weight but I'm not going to change my size because they don't like the way I look.

Perhaps I am old-fashioned, but black and white films still hold an affectionate place in my heart; they have an incomparable mystique and mood.

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.

There's always one shot that I can rely on when I'm not hitting the ball that well, is my serve.

When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another, a practiced man relies on the language of the first.

Maybe crazy is what they call anybody who's got magic in them after they're no longer a child.