If you can't count, they can cheat you. If you can't read, they can beat you.

You looked at me then like you knew me, and I thought it really was Eden, and I couldn't take your eyes in because I was loving the hoof marks on your cheeks.

No gasp at a miracle that is truly miraculous because the magic lies in the fact that you knew it was there for you all along.

I know that my books are worthy, which is separate from me.

Gimme hate, Lord,” he whimpered. “I’ll take hate any day. But don’t give me love. I can’t take no more love, Lord. I can’t carry it...It’s too heavy. Jesus, you know, you know all about it. Ain’t it heavy? Jesus? Ain’t love heavy?

Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it.

All important things are hard.