Once you'd resolved to go, there was nothing to it at all.

It's so much of what art and creativity are, being able to confront your own demons. If you can do that, you can get through just about everything.

Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.

Mom could say that in hindsight, but it seemed to me that when you were in the middle of something, it was awful hard to figure out what part of it was God's will and what wasn't.

As I sat down, though, I realized that you can get used to certain luxuries that you start to think they're necessities, but when you have to forgo them, you come to see that you don't need them after all. There was a big difference between needing things and wanting things--though a lot of people had trouble telling the two apart--and at the ranch, I could see, we have pretty much everything we'd need but precious little else.

Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you are young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul.

Most important thing in life is learning how to fall.