Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.

Right foot, left foot, right foot, breathe.

only grieving can heal grief; the passage of time will lessen the acuteness, but time alone, without the direct experience of grief, will not heal it.

I’m probably just as good a mother as the next repressed, obsessive-compulsive paranoiac.

The real payoff is the writing itself, that a day when you have gotten your work done is a good day, that total dedication is the point.

I just try to love and serve everyone, and bring everyone water, and lend an ear; that's what Jesus said to do.

Left to my own devices, my first inclination is to mess in other people's lives. I secretly believe my whole family, and really the whole world, is my responsibility.