Some children were lucky enough to have their Potter novels banned by witch-hunting school boards and micromanaging ministers. Is there any greater job than a book you're not allowed to read, a book y...
Questions are for the benefit of every student, not just the one raising his hand.
There was no time for kissing but she wanted him to know that in the future there would be. A kiss in so much loneliness was like a hand pulling you up out of the water, scooping you up from a place o...
Instead, he was astonished by what he had: the chance to sit beside this woman in the late afternoon light while she read.
The kind of love that offers its life so easily, so stupidly is always the love that is not returned.
The general wisdom around here is if you can’t get it at Wal-Mart, you don’t need it. Sabine looked up at the brown building, which was itself the size of another parking lot. I’ve never actually been...
The terrible crumple and blanch of a lie come undone...
Who makes things up? Who tells the real story? We all turn our lives into stories. It is a defining characteristic of our species. We retell our experiences. We quickly learn what parts are interestin...
He could see in his face a love so obviously displayed that she must already know everything there was to know about it. He was so close to her then that they owned every molecule of air in the tiny r...
Thank God Roxane Coss had not fallen in love with one of the Russians. She doubted they could make it up the stairs without stopping for a cigarette and telling at least one loud story that no one cou...
It was not as natural as it appeared. It was more like milking a cow, easy as long as someone else was doing it.
Lelia gave a dharma talk about letting go of self-definition: I can't do this because of what happened to me in my childhood; I can't do that because I am very shy; I could never go there because I'm...
The gawk was full of brazen curiousity, pity, and fear, every unattractive human emotion rolled into one unflattering facial expression.
If want a person wants is his life, he tends to be quiet about wanting anything else.
The women in the kitchen took turns making a fuss over the baby, acting like it was their job to keep her entertained until the Magi arrived. But the baby wasn't entertained. Her blue eyes were glazed...
Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world.
He is fifteen and ten and five. He is an instant. He is flying back to her. He is hers again. She feels the weight of him in her chest as he comes into her arms. He is her son, her beloved child, and...
Writing must not be compartmentalized. You don't step outside of the stream of your life to do your work. Work was the life. And who you were as a mother, a teacher, friend, citizen, activist, and art...
Only Mr. Hosokawa and the priest completely understood the importance of the music. Every note was distinct. It was the measurement of the time which had gotten away from them. It was the interpretati...
If Kumar had his way they would leave for Fiji every year just before Thanksgiving and not return until the New Year rang in and the decorations came down. They would swim with the fishes and lie on t...