After the book took off, I bought a whole new wardrobe.

I felt like I'd been misplaced in the cosmos and I belonged in Maine.

If God is so powerful, can he create a rock which he cannot lift?

Knowledge is a weapon. I intend to be formidably armed.

Ever since I was really little, I've had characters that were in my mind.

I don't think I could have written what I did any earlier.

After the book took off, I bought a whole new wardrobe.

The worse you are at thinking, the better you are at drinking.

I hate telling that story to people who've been struggling for years.

The first step to believing something is true is wanting to believe it is true... or being afraid it is.

No one ever goes into battle thinking God is on the other side.

I had to live this long, have the experiences I've had, to create what I do. I knew I wanted to write for years, but I had to be ready so I wouldn't blow it. The move to Maine was the final step.

It allows you to say things that sound very dramatic and get away with it. If you had characters in modern fiction say the same things as they're driving down the street in an Oldsmobile they'd sound ludicrous!

After that, I came back every year. Everyone said, 'Well, when you retire you can move there.' But I said, 'Why should I live my whole life where I don't want to be.'

They look at me and I kind of back up in case they go for my throat.

I've always said fantasy is sort of 'stealth philosophy'.

Your life is yours and yours alone. Rise up and live it.

Fantasy allows you bend the world and the situation to more clearly focus on the moral aspects of what's happening. In fantasy you can distill life down to the essence of your story.

In the end, people believed what they wanted to believe. The truth had very little to do with it.

The light of a new day always chases the shadows of the night away, and shows us that the shape of our fears is only the ghost of our own minds.

Mind what people do not only what they say for deeds will betray a lie.

Celebrating faith over reason is merely a way of denying what is in favor of embracing any whim that strikes your fancy.

Sometimes thats all life is... One desperate act after another.

The worse you are at thinking the better you are at drinking.

Ive always said fantasy is sort of stealth philosophy.

The light of a new day always chases the shadows of the night away and shows us that the shape of our fear is only the ghost of our own minds.

Her green eyes came unafraid to his. The connection was so intense that it threatened to drain his sense of self. He felt that he had always known her that she had always been a part of him that her needs were his needs.

Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent.

Reality is irrelevant; Perception is everything.

Even a foolish old woman like me knows that lazy people don't think for themselves; they only think about themselves.

Those who have come here to hate should leave now; for in their hate, they only betray themselves.

Love is a passion for life shared with another person. You fall in love with a person who you think is wonderful. It's your deepest appreciation of the value of that individual, and that individual is a reflection of what you value most in life. Love, for sound reasons, can be one of life's greatest rewards.

There is magic in sincere forgiveness - magic to heal.

Everything is valuable under the right conditions. To a man dying of thirst, water be more precious than gold. To a drowning man, water be of little worth and great trouble.

I was married for 10 minutes into a Southern family.

Far from trying to rig the system, I have spent decades opposing cronyism and all political favors, including mandates, subsidies and protective tariffs - even when we benefit from them.

You cannot mix sports with politics.

The person who asks questions is more helpful than the person who offers advice.

Faith is the quiet cousin of courage.

Though we have rightly applauded our ancestors for their spiritual achievements, those of us who prevail today will have done no small thing.

Search for beauty without features, something deeper than any signs.

My husband's a director, so he understands what I do.

Music is a passion of mine, so I also want to continue along that path, creating with my friends.

Anxiety is not fear, exactly, because fear is focused on something right in front of you - a real and objective danger.

It has taken a great deal of energy, which has not been so difficult to summon as the necessary patience to wait, simply wait much of the time - until my instincts assured me that I had assembled my materials in proper order for a final welding into their natural form.

Interestingly, the American Embassy mentioned that our efficient relief effort has significantly improved the image of the United States among the Pakistani people.

Character, I am sure, lies in the genes.

I like very, very dramatic eyeliner: I take it all the way out to my eyebrows.

That's been hard being away from the family, because Washington can be lonely. When you tune out of all the activity, that's like, you're alone.