Nature is not the number-one mystery, I’ve learned. It’s the heart that takes top honors.

Nothing erodes [a mother's love]. It is not sand on a beach. It is the nuclear heart of things-hard as the rock of this earth.

Forgiveness, which is the place that every story turns, the chance we give each other.

How do you know when an apology is true—when it means something, or can change something, or will last outside the moment?

In high school, my desire for friendship far outweighed my talent for it.

Step out from behind the words. When you're a writer you can imagine that the words speak for you and are you, but they're not. You are this living breathing bad hair day kind of person.

Imagine music gushing down the hollow places in your bones, and making you liquid, and giving you speed. Imagine music turning your body into a song.