I feel like an inadequate machine, a machine that breaks down at crucial moments, grinds to a dreadful hault, 'won't go,' or, even worse, explodes in some innocent person's face.

For any writer who wants to keep a journal, be alive to everything, not just to what you're feeling, but also to your pets, to flowers, to what you're reading.

all great people are humble because great people have great work and are humbled by the largeness of their dreams.

People are always talking about the joys of youth-but, oh, how youth can suffer!

Where joy in an old pencil is not absurd.

we are never done with thinking about our parents, I suppose, and come to know them better long after they are dead than we ever did when they were alive.

We have to believe that every person counts, counts as a creative force that can move mountains.