“Humor is almost always anger with its make-up on.”

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time to write. Simple as that.

Sooner or later even the fastest runners have to stand and fight.

A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.

Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman’s got to hold on to.

Her body was wrapped in shadows like moth wings, like rose-petals.

The past is obdurate.

To write is human, to edit is divine.

No one ever does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves.

Hurt’s a reason to change, but all the hurt in the world don’t change facts.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

When all else fails, give up and go to the library.

Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.

It’s hard to let go. Even when what you’re holding onto is full of thorns, it’s hard to let go. Maybe especially then.

When it comes to the past, everyone writes fiction.

Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.

Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.

My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.

If I stayed angry at other people, I would miss finding friends among those I was angry with.

Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.

When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

Silence the angry man with love. Silence the ill-natured man with kindness. Silence the miser with generosity. Silence the liar with truth.

The desire to be a free person is very worthwhile. To be free means you are no longer the victim of fear, anger, craving, or suspicion.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.