To get from people you had to give a piece of yourself, a real piece that mattered. Just being nice was not enough.

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

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.

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.

You can't walk alone. Many have given the illusion, but none have really walked alone. Man is not made that way. Each man is bedded in his people, their history, their culture, and their values.

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

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