In the English language, it all comes down to this: Twenty-six letters, when combined correctly, can create magic. Twenty -six letters form the foundation of a free, informed society.

Indeed, learning to write may be part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading.

Being a dominatrix gave me the ultimate power: to sing without self-consciousness.

Our love would be solace, companionship, and the mending of wounds.

Perfectionism means that you try not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.

Are you born again?" he asked, as we taxied down the runway. He was rather prim and tense, maybe a little like David Eisenhower with a spastic colon. I did not know how to answer for a moment."Yes," I...

We all know we're going to die; what's important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this.

By the time I was sixteen I had read many books and I had become a freethinker.

Once he had watched Liz making a silk braid. One end was pinned to the wall and on each finger of her raised hands she was spinning loops of thread, her fingers flying so fast he couldn't see how it...

Entitlement is simply the belief that you deserve something. Which is great. The hard part is, you'd better make sure you deserve it. So, how did I make sure that I deserved it?To answer that, I would...

By the time I was fourteen the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing.

Shit don't mean shit

The mind of man is capable of anything-because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valour, rage-who can tell?-but...

I was also supposed to quiz my various companions on a number of important matters such as nostalgia, fear of unknown animals, food fantasies, nocturnal emissions, hobbies, choice of radio program,...

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.-Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho {1983}

You'll make mistakes because it's impossible to know what is or isn't a mistake until it's made.

Life sucks, and then you die...

The History Of The Universe In Three WordsCHAPTER ONEBang!CHAPTER TWOsssssCHAPTER THRE

He is a great enough magician to tap our most common nightmares, daydreams and twilight fancies, but he never invented them either: he found them a place to live, a green alternative to each day's...

Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.

Tragedy and adversary are the stones we sharpen our swords against so we can fight new battles.

Do you know what I think about crying? I think some people have to learn to do it. But once you learn, once you know how to really cry, there's nothing quite like it. I feel sorry for those who don't...

There's so much to be grateful for, words are poor things.

...no one recognises the happiest moment of their lives as they are living it

...you don't fully appreciate what you've got until something threatens to take it away.

We do it because we care. We care that Vincent Van Gogh mutilated his ear. We care that behind a pile of manure in the yard he destroyed his life. We care that Scott Joplin's music lives! We care...

Listen, God love everything you love - and a mess of stuff you don't. But more than anything else, God love admiration.You saying God vain? I ast.Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good...

We cannot speak a loyal word and be meanly silent, we cannot kill and not kill in the same moment; but a moment is room wide enough for the loyal and mean desire, for the outlash of a murderous...

For a long while she only looked at him ... as if she didn't want to interrupt the beautiful moment with words.

Open her heart to me, please, God. After the mess I've made of things, I can't do this on my own.