Writers and travelers are mesmerized alike by knowing of their destinations.

One place understood helps us understand all places better

The mystery in how little we know of other people is no greater than the mystery of how much, Laurel thought.

I cannot remember a time when I was not in love with them--with the books themselves, cover and binding and the paper they were printed on, with their smell and their weight and with their possession in my arms, captured and carried off to myself.

Daydreaming had started me on the way; but story writing once I was truly in its grip, took me and shook me awake.

Gardening is akin to writing stories. No experience could have taught me more about grief or flowers, about achieving survival by going, your fingers in the ground, the limit of physical exhaustion.

My main disappointment was always that a book had to end. And then what? But I don't think I was ever disappointed by the books. I must have been what any author would consider an ideal reader. I felt every pain and pleasure suffered or enjoyed by all the characters. Oh, but I identified!