Of course some people manage to write books really young and publish really young. But for most writers, it takes several years because you have to apprentice yourself to the craft, and you also have to grow up. I think maturity is connected to one's ability to write well.

Work hard. Do good. Be incredible!

The only way out of a hole is to climb out.

I walked all those miles, I learned all those lessons. It's as if my new life was the gift I got at the end of a long struggle.

I really came to literature through poetry.

You have to pay your own electric bill. You have to be kind. You have to give it all you got. You have to find people who love you truly and love them back with the same truth. But that's all.

The healing power of even the most microscopic exchange with someone who knows in a flash precisely what you're talking about because she experienced that thing too cannot be overestimated.