Everybody gets scared sometimes, May Belle. You don't have to be ashamed.

I love to read. But I loved to read a lot longer than I started to love writing.

The difference between writing a story and simply relating past events is that a story, in order to be acceptable, must have shape and meaning. It is the old idea that art is the bringing of order out of chaos.

A great novel is a kind of conversion experience. We come away from it changed.

What I have come to believe is that joy is the twin sister of gratitude. I am most joyful when I am most grateful.

When my husband died, people kept telling me not to cry. People kept trying to help me to forget. But I didn't want to forget. [...] So I realize, that if it's hard for me, how much harder it must be for you.

The name we give to something shapes our attitude toward it.