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Uriah drops his tray next to me. It is loaded with beef stew and chocolate cake. I stare at the cake pile. “There was cake?†I say, looking at my own plate, which is more sensibly stocked than Uriah’s. “Yeah, someone just brought it out. Found a couple boxes of the mix in the back and baked it,†he says. “You can have a few bites of mine.†“A few bites? So you’re planning on eating that mountain of cake by yourself?†“Yes.†He looks confused. “Why?†“Never mind.
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A fool and her money are soon courted.
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When people really hate one another, the tension within them can sometimes make itself felt throughout a room, like atmospheric waves, first hot, then cold, wafted backwards and forwards as if in an invisible process of air conditioning, creating a pervasive physical disturbance.
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We all need to accept everyone.
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Intelligence, that sublimation of the sensibility, that organ of the need to know, is sterilized sensibility.
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Don't underestimate the power of the nonplussed look and the shake of the head. Letting noxious words hang in the air can be very powerful.
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The most important imperative to be questioned is the one that tells you to go the the art supply store to be a painter.
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I am extremely grateful for two big gifts from my father. First, my sense of humor - the ability to see the humor in something while it is happening. That has cushioned my life. I am also grateful for the work of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. It has enriched my life and made me a very different person.
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Motivation clears the head faster than a nasal spray.
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Just about everything significant in my life happened after I passed forty. I was a housewife and mother, but yearned to be a writer. I worked at my writing whenever I could snatch a moment, and I assembled several manuscripts. I was just about forty when my first novel, East Wind, West Wind, was published. Then a few months later came The Good Earth. My career was launched at last, and it has given me the richest possible satisfaction
