Be strong. Live honorably and with dignity. When you don't think you can, hold on.

When I go to an art gallery and stand in front of a painting, I don't want someone telling me what I should be seeing or thinking; I want to feel whatever I feel, see whatever I see, and figure out what I figure out.

America was first colonized by Puritans. Most of our earliest immigrants, and many since, have come here in order to practice their religious beliefs as they please. Our culture has always been, and will most likely always be, profoundly influenced by religion.

To say that you can't see echoes of the past in what I do would be absurd. Everything that has preceded me has affected me.

Being a writer now is about so much more than writing. There's publishing, touring, marketing, web presence.

The wounds that never heal can only be mourned alone.

On the other couch a women sits with a young boy looking through a picture book about Babar the Elephant. When I find a magazine and I lean back to start reading it, I can see the women watching me out of the corner of her eye. She moves closer to the child and she leans over and kisses his forehead. I know why she does it and i don't blame her.