Hope doesn't mean anything. ... Action's the only thing that counts.

Governments will rise, and governments will fall, and man will do evil to man, and all we can do is turn our hearts to good.

Sometimes I can spend as long revising a manuscript as I spent writing it in the first place.

I don't know what you two are up to," Hobart said. "But you be careful now, you hear? Don't do anything I wouldn't do." "Well now, that doesn't restrict us very much, does it?" Mark teased back.

And yet, I felt a surge of exhilaration just thinking about that night. Not just because I'd met the prince and fallen in love and started on my course toward happiness ever after, but because I'd made something happen. I'd done something everybody had told me I couldn't. I'd changed my life all by myself. Having a fairy godmother would have ruined everything.

I was lucky enough not to face any required summer reading lists until I went to college. So I still think of summer as the best time to read for fun.

That porch is a happy-looking place, and my father - burdened, stoop-shouldered, cadaverously thin - doesn't seem to belong on it.