“To acknowledge the presence of fear is to give birth to failure.”

“A big bee, a golden furry fellow, crept into a freesia, and the delicate flower leaned over, swung, shook; and when the bee flew away it fluttered still as though it were laughing. Happy, careless ...”

“I am treating you as my friend, asking you to share my present minuses in the hope that I can ask you to share my future plusses.”

“Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others ... Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth."(Journal entry, 14 October 1922)”

“I do not know why I have such a fancy for this little caf. It's dirty and sad, sad. It's not as if it had anything to distinguish it from a hundred othersit hasn't; or as if the same strange types ...”

“Everything about her was sweet, pale like honey. You would not have been surprised to see a bee caught in the tangles of that yellow hair.”

“Just because it's fiction doesn't mean it's any less true.”

“Oh, Sweetie. No one ever gets through their TBR list. For every book you finish, you'll add five more. That's just the way it works.”

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”