So Rita and I decided that the most subversive, revolutionary thing I could do was to show up for my life and not be ashamed.

When we agree to being part of something bigger than our own wired, fixated minds, we are saved.

Quiet, deep breath after any prayer is another form of Amen.

No matter how people mess with you or let you down, or how you let yourself down, a good book means that when you get in bed that night, you have a good hour. I feel like you pay all day for that hour. That's what books mean to me. I can open this two-dimensional , flat white page with squiggly little black marks on them, and someone has created this world that you're going to enter into.

I used to tell my writing students that they must write the books they wished they could come upon - because then the books they hungered and thirsted for would exist.

I don't have any romantic views of parenting. Every step of the way it's really hard. It's a dangerous world, physically and psychologically.

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor; the enemy of the people. It will keep you insane your whole life.