My son is the best thing that ever happened to me. And through me - to a lot of people.

To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.

Continue. Be loving and be strong. Be fierce and be kind. And don't give in and don't give up.'

If our children are to approve of themselves, they must see that we approve of ourselves.

I not only have the right to stand up for myself, but I have the responsibility. I can't ask somebody else to stand up for me if I won't stand up for myself. And once you stand up for yourself, you'd be surprised that people say, "Can I be of help?".

You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

Putting down on paper what you have to say is an important part of writing, but the words and ideas have to be shaped and cleaned, cleaned as severely as a dog cleans a bone, cleaned until there's not a shred of anything superfluous.