That's why there are ten gates to pass through before you reach the garden. If life were easy there would be one gate. There would be no gates at all.

I heard a sigh, as though the books were breathing. I felt that this was where I belonged. This was where I lived.

Crying wasn't like riding a bike. Give it up, and you quickly forget how it's done.

You can try to take sorrow and make it into something enduring, meaningful and beautiful. I always feel guilty that this is my job, that I get to do this

Never look at other people's bad fortune,' my mother said. 'If you do, it will come back to find you instead of its rightful owner.

Certain things need not be said, and there’s nothing, not a whisper, prayer, not a sacrifice, not a payment of any price, that would change what’s about to happen.

I feel more influenced in my own work by dreams than I do by other writers' works in a way. Or by popular culture, movies - what else is there to write about than love and loss?