My great-aunt. . . . said nobody under 18 had any business reading Dickens. . . . She was right.

Life rises out of death, death rises out of life; in being opposite they yearn to each other, they give birth to each other and are forever reborn. And with them, all is reborn, the flower of the apple tree, the light of the stars. In life is death. In death is rebirth. What then is life without death? Life unchanging, everlasting, eternal?-What is it but death-death without rebirth?

In our loss and fear we craved the acts of religion, the ceremonies that allow us to admit our helplessness, our dependence on the great forces we do not understand.

When the genuine myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message. You must change your life.

Skill in writing frees you to write what you want to write. It may also show you what you want to write. Craft enables art.

Besides, when you say you're a feminist it annoys the bigots and the old farts and the prissy ladies so much, it's kind of irresistible.

Absolute freedom is absolute responsibility.