“I always had plenty of ideas. I didn’t exactly have them. They grew—little by little, a half an idea at a time. First, part of a phrase and then a person to go with it. After a person, then a little corner of a place for the person to be in.”

“It's American to be from somewhere else, and it's American to go from East to West. It's American to seek your fortune someplace other than where you are, or to be escaping something...”

“I shall love my kind of love anyway, doggedly, for I must certainly do the best I can with my own nature and if my nature is to love too well or from afar or to be grateful for crumbs...well, so be it.”

“Whatever life brings, we'll share," she says, and "I can do no more than the best I can.”

“May we all soon go about as our real selves and take joy in it, saying, yes, yes, to whatever we are.”

“She tips back her head and howls: Moooooown! Oh wonderful moooooowwwwwyyyn!”

“The world looks so beautiful! She wonders how one can not do for it anything that needs to be done, or at least all one can do.”

“Ah, but is it not the mind that is the real grace of Homo sapiens? All the things to think about! All the things to read and appreciate! All the arts! All the things of the spirit!”

“I always had plenty of ideas. I didn’t exactly have them. They grew—little by little, a half an idea at a time. First, part of a phrase and then a person to go with it. After a person, then a little corner of a place for the person to be in.”

“Stories do not change the world. I’ve learned that. But perhaps in some secret, subtle way.... I mean it’s not the world I want to change.”