Writing fiction has developed in me an abiding respect for the unknown in a human lifetime and a sense of where to look for the threads, how to follow, how to connect, find in the thick of the tangle what clear line persists.

If you have form'd a circle to go into,Go into it yourself, and see how you would do.They said this mystery never shall cease:The priest promotes war, and the soldier peace.

William Blake, To God The Rosset

I am unjust, but I can strive for justice. My life's unkind, but I can vote for kindness. I, the unloving, say life should be lovely. I, that am blind, cry out against my blindness.

Vachel Lindsay

I love and always have loved policy issues and trying to have an impact on the issues that are out there. I cherish my years in government. I have loved my participation at CNN, at Current writing teaching. Where I will go next, I will have to sort out.

Eliot Spitzer

There's nothing written in the Bible, Old or New testament, that says, If you believe in Me, you ain't going to have no troubles.

Ray Charles

Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation, the source of strength is one's self. When one prays, he goes to a source of strength greater than his own.

Madame de Stael

Reality is not always probable, or likely.

Jorge Luis Borges

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

Thomas Jefferson

I think careful cooking is love, don't you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a valentine as you can give.

Julia Child

I don't design clothes, I design dreams.

Ralph Lauren

Man is not the enemy here, but the fellow victim.

Betty Friedan

Shy and proud men are more liable than any others to fall into the hands of parasites and creatures of low character. For in the intimacies which are formed by shy men, they do not choose, but are chosen.

Sir Henry Taylor

I have never known anyone worth a damn who wasn't irascible.

Ezra Pound