Love just seems to make life not just livable, but a gallant, gallant event.

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.

It seems to me everything Shakespeare did was political.

It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love ... You can't own a human being.

When I write, I don't translate for white readers.... Dostoevski wrote for a Russian audience, but we're able to read him. If I'm specific, and I don't overexplain, then anyone can overhear me.

Misery colored by the greens and blues in my mother's voice took away all the grief out of the words and left me with a conviction that pain was not only endurable, it was sweet.

We never shape the world . . . the world shapes us.