If I'm here, I'll be trying to be a better human being, a better writer, a better friend and a better beloved.

The autobiographer looks at life through the lens of his or her own life and really uses herself or himself as the jumping-off place to examine the social mores and the economic and political climates. In a way, the autobiography becomes history as well as the story of one person, for it becomes the story of a family or the story of the state or nation.

Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.

Without defeats, how do you really know who the hell you are? If you never had to stand up to something - to get up, to be knocked down, and to get up again - life can walk over you wearing football cleats. But each time you do get up, you're bigger, taller, finer, more beautiful, more kind, more understanding, more loving. Each time you get up, you're more inclusive. More people can stand under your umbrella.

As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else.

Some of us are timid. We think we have something to lose so we don't try for that next hill.

If you do not like anything, alter it. If you can not change it, adjust your mindset. Will not complain.