The hitter can never be the judge. Only the receiver of the blow can tell you how hard it was, whether it would kill a man or make a baby just yawn.

We are all worthy of one another.

When you grow up with a mother who has to wash dishes and clean hotel rooms, you know the importance of having a job, and you cant be without a job for any length of time, or you will be without anything.

I'm fascinated by the awful, awful things that human beings do to each other.

A woman, no matter the age, is always learning, always becoming. But a man . . . stops learning at fourteen or so.

Calvin had long been uneasy in his own person and so lived to put everyone else at ease.

In journalism, a fact is just a fact. But in fiction, you have to build your case. It has to be made, step by step.