She was one of those Southerners who knew from an early age that the South could never be more for them than a fragrant prison, administered by a collective of loving but treacherous relatives.

Good writing is the hardest form of thinking. It involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear. If the writing is good, then the result seems effortless and inevitable. But when you want to say something life-changing or ineffable in a single sentence, you face both the limitations of the sentence itself and the extent of your own talent.

My soul found ease and rest in the companionship of books.

Man wonders but God decides When to kill the Prince of Tides.

I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.

My mother raised me to be a writer.

... silence (can) be the most eloquent form of lying.