I was a very curious person because of my parents. They encouraged me to be as curious about as many things as I wanted.

You have to be open to change. I never stop making sure that what I say is the best of what could be said about a particular thing. It's a constant evolution. If I planted a tree one way yesterday and somebody tells me of a better way to plant a tree, I think, You know, they're right, that's better. Then I change my way to accommodate the new way of planting trees.

When I was incarcerated at Alderson in West Virginia for a five-month term, they had a ceramics class.

When I was growing up my mom was home. She wanted to go to work, but she waited. She was educated as a teacher. The minute my youngest sister went to school full-time, from first grade, mom went back to work. But she balanced her life. She chose teaching, which enabled her to leave at the same time we left, and come home pretty much the same time we came home. She knew how to balance.

Plants respond far better to moderate but consistent care than they do to occasional bouts of heroic intervention.

Never make a big decision without sleeping on it.

As with all my new pets, I gently bit each kitten on the face. This is how I let my animals know that I am now their mother.