shame should be reserved for the things we choose to do, not the circumstances that life puts on us

Society was nothing but a long, dull dinner party conversation in which one was forced to speak to one's partner on both the left and the right.

I decided to make my living as a magazine writer. And I found that it was really easy and fun.

Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected.

He realized now he was only just beginning to see the full extent to which it was his destiny to follow, to walk blindly into fates he could never understand. In fate there was reward, in turning over one's heart to God there was a magnificence that lay beyond description. At the moment one is sure that all is lost, look at what is gained!

I will go and speak at rotary clubs. I will go and speak at schools. I'm so much in the community, but in a way that I love. It's been such a positive thing.

If what we want to do is promote reading and writing and publishing and making sure this is a business that keeps going - because it is a business! It's not just an art - then we have to take responsibility. I get sort of crazy and frothy when I think about this. It really matters.