When writing loses touch with the beautiful surface of the world, it loses its way. You always want to be in touch with how things look and what people say and what they call their dogs.

There was a price to be paid for being interested in fiction and in writing, pushing my family away. Books and authors became my family.

Honesty is a rare commodity in a palace, and that is why so many fairy-tale marriages end up on the rocks.

You don't have to justify a beautiful stroke of good luck. Accept it. Smile and say thank you.

Scripture doesn't promise that God will remove temptation, only that you'll be given strength to withstand it.

TV news is as bloody as Shakespeare but without the intelligence and the poetry. If you watch television news you know less about the world than if you drank gin out of a bottle

When you're a little kid, your heart is open and tender and a harsh word can go straight in and become part of your life.