A house that does not have one warm, comfy chair in it is soulless.

Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness.

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.

In a total work, the failures have their not unimportant place.

It is the privilege of those who fear love to murder those who do not fear it!

We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.

No partner in a love relationship... should feel that he has to give up an essential part of himself to make it viable.

One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.

In the country of pain we are each alone.

Women are at last becoming persons first and wives second, and that is as it should be.

May we agree that private life is irrelevant? Multiple, mixed, ambiguous at best - out of it we try to fashion the crystal clear, the singular, the absolute, and that is what is relevant; that is what matters.

Don't forget that compared to a grownup person every baby is a genius. Think of the capacity to learn! The freshness, the temperament, the will of a baby a few months old!

Self-respect is nothing to hide behind. When you need it most it isn't there.

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

Help us to be ever faithful gardeners of the spirit, who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth, and without light nothing flowers.

A house that does not have one warm, comfy chair in it is soulless.

The garden is growth and change and that means loss as well as constant new treasures to make up for a few disasters.

Most people have to talk so they won't hear.

The minute one utters a certainty, the opposite comes to mind.

The more articulate one is, the more dangerous words become.

There is only one real deprivation... and that is not to be able to give one's gifts to those one loves most.

True feeling justifies whatever it may cost.

Without darkness nothing comes to birth, as without light nothing flowers.

Old age is not an illness, it is a timeless ascent. As power diminishes, we grow toward the light.

Dont forget that compared to a grownup person every baby is a genius.

We have to dare to be ourselves however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.

Love opens the doors into everything as far as I can see including and perhaps most of all the door into ones own secret and often terrible and frightening real self.

It is the privilege of those who fear love to murder those who do not fear it

One does not find oneself by pursuing ones self but on the contrary by pursuing something else and learning through discipline or routine... who one is and wants to be.

It is sometimes the most fragile things that have the power to endure and become sources of strength.

Everything that slows us down and forces patience everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.

We are all jellyfish, too pitiful and too afraid of being disliked to be honest.

For any writer who wants to keep a jounal, be alive to everything, not just to what you're feeling, but also to your pets to flowers, to what you're reading.

Gardening gives one back a sense of proportion about everything " except itself.

Though friendship is not quick to burn, it is explosive stuff.

A house that does not have one worn, comfy chair in it is soulless.

No partner in a love relationship should feel that he has to give up an essential part of himself to make it viable.

Revision is not going back and fussing around, but going forward into the process of creation

The blues are what I've turned to, what has given me inspiration and relief in all the trials of my life.

The good life, as it is popularly conceived, typically involves acquiring mastery in one's work, thus gaining for oneself better terms - or means to rewards, whether material, like wealth, or nonmaterial - an experience we may call 'prospering.'

When I look back at my life now, I'm not amazed by what I did at 16 to 21.

Bicycle means simplicity and simplicity means happiness

If I was ashamed of who I am, I would be in the closet.

After the fighting is done, and even when it's still happening, apologies are often needed for the recounting of bare facts. Sometimes bare facts feel unpatriotic.

No one's calling me for lawyer roles. I still have a lot to do to prove myself.

Sooner barbarity than boredom.

There's an awful temptation to just keep on researching. There comes a point where you just have to stop, and start writing.

I don't need to know how they make Coca-Cola. I think it tastes just fine not knowing what the ingredients are. I think there are some things that should be kept secret.