In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.

What we [writers] do might be done in solitude and with great desperation, but it tends to produce exactly the opposite. It tends to produce community and in many people hope and joy.

You don't want to let go, but don't want to be hurt, either. It's not a great place to be but what can I tell you?

If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level any reflection of themselves

Travel light. She extended her arms to embrace her house, maybe the whole world.

Privilege does not operate without silence.

Tell her that you love her hair, that you love her skin, her lips, because, in truth, you love them more than you love your own.