Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I believe that illness has led me to a life of gratitude, so I consider Lyme disease at this point in my life to be a blessing in disguise.
Writing has nothing to do with communication between person and person, only with communication between different parts of a person's mind.
It is always self-defeating to pretend to the style of a generation younger than your own; it simply erases your own experience in history.
There are many writers who have influenced me and who I enjoy reading, but Lucille Clifton and Gwendolyn Brooks are at the top of the list.
Pain was their body's way of telling them that they'd pushed themselves to their limits - which was exactly where they were supposed to be.
To me there is nothing that goes against nature. If it seems incomprehensible, it's only because we haven't been able to understand it yet.
Not for nothing is their motto TGIF - 'Thank God It's Friday.' They live for the weekends, when they can go do what they really want to do.
I have learned a great truth of life. We do not succeed in spite of our challenges and difficulties, but rather, precisely because of them.
Raising or caring for children requires sacrifice and service, which, I believe, heals us from the destructive forces of self-centeredness.
The idea of being a novelist is really romantic, but it's kind of the same as being president of the United States - it's not gonna happen.
You, know I'm the Queen's favorite great nephew, Well, yeah I'm her only great nephew, but that's not important, I'd still be her favorite.
This is very domestic of you," he said. "It's kinda hot, really. Giving me all sorts of fantasies about you in an apron vacuuming my house.
I looked back and forth at them in amazement. I didn't know if I was witnessing a fight or foreplay. I wasn't thrilled about either option.
Surely I must be a princess in an enchanted sleep. Any day now, this dream-no, nightmare would end, and I’d get my prince and happy ending.
I can't promise that every child with learning differences will become a novelist, but I do think all children can become lifelong readers.
Measure yourself by your best moments, not by your worst. We are too prone to judge ourselves by our moments of despondency and depression.
I used to be an atheist, until I realized I had nothing to shout during blowjobs. Oh Random Chance! Oh Random Chance! just doesn't cut it….
My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything.
Robert A. Heinlein has been an idol to me for more than 20 years. He can do no wrong, no matter how much he loves wars and hates pacifists.
Sometimes I am so dry that people don't know I'm kidding and think I'm being serious. I enjoy this because their reactions are often funny.
It seems to me that many writers, by virtue of environments of culture, art and education, slip into writing because of their environments.
The British audience was very important to me. I have always looked away from American to non-American audiences and so this was important.
The anti-American policy is the one that keeps oil prices up. The way to do that is to help OPEC limit the amount of liquid fuel available.
I think it's possible to realize you love someone as deeply as you know how to love and not end up spending the rest of your life with him.
Partying means drinking. It also means playing records by Lou Reed and Chicago, which I thought was a city but is also a band it turns out.
Surely a good therapist should produce a Dorian Gray-style portrait from under the couch so the patient can see the person they really are.
I do think that evangelicals in general need to think seriously about how you pass on your faith across generations and over the long haul.
Most ads are about the product or the company that makes it...the best ads are about the customer and how the product will change his life.
There are all kinds of monuments to adults - usually dead and usually white. But we don't often lift up the extraordinary work of children.
The Germans have a word for it: Sitzfleisch. Staying power. Winning by sticking your ass to the seat and not leaving until after it's over.
The process for finding, creating, and consuming information has fundamentally changed with the advent of the web and the rise of blogging.
If you run a business that isn't cutting edge or doesn't naturally stick out of the crowd, it's your job to be different and get attention.
Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadness.
Happiness can only be achieved by looking inward & learning to enjoy whatever life has and this requires transforming greed into gratitude.
Faith enables many of us to endure life's difficulties with an equanimity that would be scarcely conceivable in a world lit only by reason.
We know enough at this moment to say that the God of Abraham is not only unworthy of the immensity of creation; he is unworthy even of man.
A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and send their children to school with it.
A physician's physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric's divinity has to his power of influencing conduct.
The gentle art of gastronomy is a friendly one. It hurdles the language barrier, makes friends among civilized people, and warms the heart.
It is easier to argue that something nobody believes in actually exists than it is to argue that something everybody believes in is unreal.
Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not find them, they will make them.
What do you want? What are you willing to give up to get it? Writing requires you make sacrifices. Be prepared to work hard to be a writer.
Sure, you can mix the flour, baking soda, salt, shortening, and the whole nine yards, but why wouldn't you just pull out a box of Bisquick?
I see a broken shell and I remind myself that something might have needed setting free. See, broken things always have a story, don't they?
She was so Southern that she cried tears that came straight from the Mississippi, and she always smelled faintly of cottonwood and peaches.
My parents told me any and every fairy-tale from all around the world. I usually gravitated towards ones with interesting, strong heroines.
Of all the myriad ways we define love, there is perhaps none more honest and powerful than this: Great love is rooted in great partnership.
Somehow, since I became a family, every minute in which I am alone and not listening to two kids screaming in stereo feels like a vacation.
To discover your mission and put it into action - instead of worrying on the sidelines - is to find peace of mind and a heart full of love.
It seems that bad advice that's fun will always be better known than than good advice that's dull-no matter how useless that fun advice is.