Wariness about change is a kind of prairie wisdom.

Changing husbands is only changing troubles.

Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine.

I am learning to see loneliness as a seed that, when planted deep enough, can grow into writing that goes back out into the world.

To be an American is to move on, as if we could outrun change. To attach oneself to place is to surrender to it, and suffer with it.

I wonder if children don't begin to reject both poetry and religion for similar reasons, because the way both are taught takes the life out of them.

In middle age we are apt to reach the horrifying conclusion that all sorrow, all pain, all passionate regret and loss and bitter disillusionment are self-made