love life, engage in it, give it all you've got. love it with a passion, because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it

I was born in St. Louis but lived there just for a few minutes in my life.

I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, 'No. No, I'm finished. Bye.' And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it. I won't do that.

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

If you want what you're saying heard, then take your time and say it so that the listener will actually hear it. You might save somebody's life. Your own, first.

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.'

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

I thank God I'm myself and for the life I'm given to live and for friends and lovers and beloveds, and I thank God for knowing that all those people have already paid for me.

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style

If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning 'Good morning' at total strangers.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.

You will face many defeats in your life, but never let yourself be defeated.