[Her] work taught me that you could be all the traditional feminine things -- a mother, a lover, a listener, a nurturer -- and you could also be critically astute and radical and have a minority opinion that was profoundly moral.

Presents can make up for some of the disappointments that life doles out, such as it makes almost no sense and is coming to an end more quickly than ever.

Frequently, as so many poets and psalmists and songwriters have said, the invisible shift happens through the broken places.

If you are hoping to find your self-worth and fulfillment in other peoples' opinion of your writing, you will never find it.

There is nothing as sweet as a comeback, when you are down and out, about to lose, and out of time.

Laughter is a bubbly, effervescent form of holiness

You just have to keep getting out of your own way so that whatever it is that wants to be written can use you to write it.