My life is not just about the past.

Everything in life is gray, you know.

I was so worried that people wouldn't like me or my story.

My life is not just about the past.

I never had any question that my parents loved me. I had a real sense of self confidence.

Books are my very favorite gift to give. If you give a book to someone and they really respond to it, you feel you've actually changed their life in some way.

Horses are a mirror of who you are. They're emotionally dependent on you.

I always wanted to be a serious journalist.

I believe that everyone has some huge talent in them; the really lucky ones discover what it is.

I feel like 'Alice Through the Looking Glass.'

I find books that have a moral and spiritual center, that speak to what is really important and lasting, hugely appealing.

I found out that people are incredibly compassionate and kind. It really changed my view of the world.

I listen to music mostly in the evening. I've come to love what is called world music, like the Zimbabwean Oliver Mtukudzi and the Colombian singer Marta Gomez. I also love the Irish folk singer Mary Black. Other favorites include Chet Baker, Eva Cassidy, and Billie Holiday.

I reached my full height at age 11, and I was clumsy as all get-out - all elbows and knees, couldn't get up a flight of stairs without falling down. I wanted to be a cute, petite blonde, but I'm a big ol' strapping thing, so I just accept it.

I sit down at my desk pretty early in the morning and write all day until about 4 or 5 p.m.

I was in control of what people thought of me, but I had no control over what they thought of my mother. When I asked my mother, 'How do I tell people about you?' her answer was, 'Tell the truth'. But of course, the truth is never simple.

I'm a big believer in luck - the harder you work, the luckier you become.

I'm a fairly fast, but sloppy writer, so I'm a big fan of re-writing, and re-writing again.

My advice to anyone is to figure out what you're good at - what it is that you love doing the most in life - and figure out a way to make a living from it.

My older sister achieved her dream of being an artist. She's an illustrator living in Manhattan.

One of the most challenging aspects of writing a memoir is finding your own voice, and you should be very careful about being influenced by someone else's voice.

Some people who've read my story think I had a terrible childhood and that I was neglected or even abused, while others feel that my parents, while certainly flawed, also had truly wonderful qualities. And that's the way it should be, because in real life two people can look at the same president and one will see a hero and the other a villain.

We're stronger than we realize.

When I got a little older, I started writing for the high school newspaper, 'The Maroon Wave,' and that's when I fell in love with journalism.

Whenever I'm reading a book I enjoy, I always develop a mental list of the people I want to share it with.

Sometimes you need a little crisis to get your adrenaline flowing and help you realize your potential.

Youll never make a fortune working for the boss man

You didnt need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention you could pick things up on your own.

If you had weak eyes they needed exercises to get strong. Glasses were like crutches. They prevented people with feeble eyes from seeing the world on their own.

Most important thing in life ... is learning how to fall.

Anyone who thinks he's too small to make a difference has never been bit by a mosquito.

Nobody's perfect. We're all just one step up from the beasts and one step down from the angels.

Sometimes something catastrophic can occur in a split second that changes a person's life forever; other times one minor incident can lead to another and then another and another, eventually setting off just as big a change in a body's life.

When people kill themselves, they think they're ending the pain, but all they're doing is passing it on to those they leave behind.

One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.

If you want to be reminded of the love of the Lord, just watch the sunrise.

Once you go on welfare it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case. You're scarred for life.

Roosevelt's magic lay in one facet of his personality: He knew how to take the risk. No other man in public life I knew could so readily take the challenge of the new.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life.

If it came to saving the life of one priest or sacrificing the life of an entire congregation, the church would save the life of the priest. Which is backwards, of course.

Work is the meat of life, pleasure the dessert.

All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life.

At the end, the realization is that she had to get to a place in her life where she could drop her guard and make peace with the fact that whether she had a small amount of time, that she had to kind of live it completely through, instead of living by the rules.

You have choices to make about what you do with the rest of your life.

From the standpoint of observation, then, we must regard it as a highly probable hypothesis that the beginnings of the mental life date from as far back as the beginnings of life at large.

I want to have babies one day but not right now. When I do it I want to do it really well. I want it to be my best project in life.

Any judge who allows an adulterer with a live-in girlfriend to terminate the life of his wife should be impeached.

I can assure you, public service is a stimulating, proud and lively enterprise. It is not just a way of life, it is a way to live fully.