I think that Oprah's on a mission to improve the lives of the average American in various ways. And one of them is to bring literature to people who would normally not be quite as demanding in their reading tastes, to show them writing that can be more than just entertainment.

Love could never bloom in a concrete block room.

If sinners where so unhappy, why would they prefer their suffering? But now I knew why. Without my wounds, who was I?

As an artist, you can never get what you want. What you do never approaches what you want it to be.

We read so that we can be moved by a new way of looking at things.

Let me tell you a few things about regret. There is no end to it. Do you regret the beginning which ended so badly, or just the ending itself?

The sound of her laughter was sticky as sap, the smell of night-blooming jasmine soft as a milk bath.