In a certain way, we're always toggling back and forth between the absolute and the relative, if that makes sense.

I wasted a lot of years working on my writing and very grandly saying, 'And now... My Novel!,' which would soon be reduced to a short story, then to a paragraph.

The best thing we can bring to any fight is a calm and compassionate mind.

Do not really like rich people, as they make us poor people feel dopey and inadequate. Not that we are poor. I would say we are middle. We are very, very lucky. I know that. But still, it is not right that rich people make us middle people feel dopey and inadequate.

Toni Morrison seems to have a lot of faith in people - that's what I mean by gentle power.

I watched a bunch of kids movies on Christmas. I was kind of joking with our family by asking, "Is anyone allowed to die in a kid's movie anymore?"

I remember reading The Bluest Eye when I was a young parent, and something opened in me. That's the highest aspiration.