For in the end, freedom is a personal and lonely battle; and one faces down fears of today so that those of tomorrow might be engaged.
— Alice Walker
It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one's children will become than for the children one's 'mature' critics often are.
Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.
In search of my mother's garden, I found my own.
Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.
I think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to.
It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all.
Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me.
No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.
I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.
Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.
People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.
Never be the only one, except, possibly, in your own home.
In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful.
Tea to the English is really a picnic indoors.
Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.
Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk?
You know how big love is? Love is big. love can hold anger; love can even hold hatred.
