I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool - and I'm not any of those - to say that I don't write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.

Hope does not take away your problems. It can lift you above them.

I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.

Nathaniel Hawthorne once said that easy reading is damn hard writing.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.