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The ball of dark fur pressed itself into my chest, and I wished she was my kitten, and knew that she was not.

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Words save our lives, sometimes.

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The ocean was back in the pond, and the only knowledge I was left with, as if I had woken from a dream on a summer's day, was that it had not been lon...more

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But there was a kitten on my pillow, and it was purring in my face and vibrating gently with every purr, and, very soon, I slept.

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It's astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if one works at it. And astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself out of, if one si...more

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A book is a dream you hold in your hands

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I don’t ever remember being afraid of “oldness”.There are things I miss about being younger - chiefly the ability to pull all-nighters and keep workin...more

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Sometimes life is hard. Things go wrong—in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go...more

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Read. Read anything. Read the things they say are good for you, and the things they claim are junk. You'll find what you need to find. Just read.

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If you're making mistakes it means you're out there doing something.

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I would like to see anyone, prophet, king or God, convince a thousand cats to do the same thing at the same time.

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The best advice I can give on this is, once it's done, to put it away until you can read it with new eyes. Finish the short story, print it out, then ...more

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Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. ...more

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My cousin Helen, who is in her 90s now, was in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. She and a bunch of the girls in the ghetto had to do sewing each...more

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So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made...more