And sometimes you do everything right and something bad just happens. It’s as simple, and as scary, as that.
We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else’s mind.
You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.
Reading is not simply an intellectual pursuit but an emotional and spiritual one. It lights the candle in the hurricane lamp of self; that’s why it survives.
In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own.
Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.
But it’s important, while we are supporting lessons in respecting others, to remember that many of our youngest kids need to learn to respect themselves. You learn your worth from the way you are treated.
People always blame the girl; she should have said no. A monosyllable, but conventional wisdom has always been that boys can’t manage it.
Get a life. A real life. Not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Not writing at all leads to nothing.
I sometimes think that courage is the thing that you need more than any other thing. It’s fear that cripples us. It’s fear that accounts for racism, it’s fear that accounts for sexism, for xenophobia.
Don’t ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first.
When you really want to say no, say no. You can’t do everything – or at least not well.
Speech is the voice of the heart.
The voices of conformity speak so loudly. Don’t listen to them. No one does the right thing out of fear. If you ever utter the words, ‘We’ve always done it that way,’ I urge you to wash out your mouth with soap.
All parents should be aware that when they mock or curse gay people, they may be mocking or cursing their own child.
Maybe I had three children in the first place so I wouldn’t ever have to play board games. In my religion, martyrs die.
Here is one of the worst things about having someone you love die: It happens again every single morning.
All of us want to do well. But if we do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough.
If an opportunity scares you, that’s God’s way of saying you should jump at it.