You might encounter defeats but you must never be defeated... Love a lot. Laugh a lot at the silliest things and be very serious... love life.

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

To be human is to be challenged to be more divine. Not even to try to meet such a challenge is the biggest defeat imaginable.

One of the problems we have as writers is we don't take ourselves seriously while writing; being serious is setting aside a time and saying if it comes, good; if it doesn't come, good, I'll just sit here.

I had to trust life and believe that life loved the person who dared to live it.

I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world's variety and uniqueness.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I'll be okay. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me. So I have a special place for every library, in my heart of hearts.