I think there's more real in the unreal than there is in the real.

No experience in this world has ever been cathartic without the willing participation of the individual. Life does not automatically bestow wisdom or growth upon anyone just for showing up.

I'm so excited about school. I'm such a shameless student. I laid my clothes out last night, just like I did before my first day of first grade, with my patent leather shoes and my new lunch box. I hope the teacher will like me :)

Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line from the Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus: 'You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.

I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write.

I've read that under trauma, that you have this ability to kind of disconnect from the experience.

I cannot overstate the power of libraries in my life.