You don't have to be a good person to be a good writer--history shows it's better if you're not--but you have to understand your badness.

You don't have to be a good person to be a good writer--history shows it's better if you're not--but you have to understand your badness.

Mom had the kind of love for her that you could feel, like it was part of the atmosphere

Many have changed so much that they have lost the magic of the dream that carried them on their own bootstraps.

To live with the conscious knowledge of the shadow of uncertainty, with the knowledge that disaster or tragedy could strike at any time; to be afraid and to know and acknowledge your fear, and still to live creatively and with unstinting love: that is to live with grace.

What do you get out of hating people, out of having this bitterness in your heart always?

To get where you want to go, you can't only do what you like.