In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.

Long before I was a success, my parents made me feel like I could be one.

I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer - its dust and lowering skies.

If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic....Authors arrive at text and subtext in thousands of ways, learning each time they begin anew how to recognize a valuable idea and how to reader the texture that accompanies, reveals or displays it to its best advantage.

Beloved, you are my sister, you are my daughter, you are my face; you are me.

I tell my students one of the most important things they need to know is when they are at their best, creatively. They need to ask themselves, What does the ideal room look like? Is there music? Is there silence? Is there chaos outside or is there serenity outside? What do I need in order to release my imagination?

Our ancestors are an ever widening circle of hope.