“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.”

I sustain myself with the love of family.

Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.

When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe.

I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.

I believe most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.

You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.

I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’.

Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.

We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.

Anybody going into boxing already has brain damage.

Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out.

Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think.

I love getting into people’s brains and understanding the creative impetus for something.

Sometimes our brains are our own worst enemy because grace isn’t logical.

Fear has no brains; it is an idiot.

At the back of our brains is a blaze of astonishment at our own existence. The object of the artistic and spiritual life is to dig for this sunrise of wonder.

I waited for the idea to consolidate, for the grouping and composition of themes to settle themselves in my brain.