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.

Every time I see the bumper sticker that says “We think we’re humans having spiritual experiences, but we’re really spirits having human experiences,” I (a) think it’s true and (b) want to ram the car.

Some people may have thought that this book was too personal, too confessional. But what these people think about me is none of my business.

It's intrusive for grandparents to think they're in charge. It's manipulative. Also, it's self-destructive, since if the parents have to resist you, you won't get your mitts on the kid as often.

Grace arrived, like the big, loopy stitches with which a grandmotherly stranger might baste your hem temporarily.

Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, in the pictures you have painted, and this decreases the terrible sense of isolation that we have all had too much of.

[S]he believed that the Buddhists were right–that if you want, you will suffer; if you love, you will grieve. (68)