I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

When you are active, and you must know this so well, that the more you are active, the more you see, the more you go to see. You know, you are curious. One thing leads to another thing, and it gets deeper and deeper, too. And there's no end to it.

To grow, to become spiritually alive, and vibrant, you really have to struggle. Without struggle, you do not move at all...I would appreciate it if readers who come to my work would try very, very, very hard not to think narrowly as we are taught to think in America.

How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.

If I could live as a tree, as a river, as the moon, as the sun, as a star, as the earth, as a rock, I would. ...Writing permits me to experience life as any number of strange creations.

I've found, in my own writing, that a little hatred, keenly directed, is a useful thing.

My parents taught me service - not by saying, but by doing. That was my culture, the culture of my family.