A community to be truly community, must have a quality of unselfconsciousness about it.

And sometimes when we listen, we are led into places we do not expect, into adventures we do not always understand.

Inspiration more often comes during the work than before it, because the largest part of the job of an artist is to listen to the work.

In reading we must become creators. Once the child has learned to read alone, and can pick up a book without illustrations, he must become a creator, imagining the setting of the story, visualizing the characters, seeing facial expressions, hearing the inflection of voices. The author and the reader "know" each other; they meet on the bridge of words.

To create a work of art, great or small, is work, hard work, and work requires discipline and order.

It strikes me as somewhat odd that the people who use God's name most frequently, both in life and in literature, usually don't believe in him.

But grief still has to be worked through. It is like walking through water. Sometimes there are little waves lapping about my feet. Sometimes there is an enormous breaker that knocks me down. Sometimes there is a sudden and fierce squall. But I know that many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.