"I'm not convinced that women have the education or the sense of their own history enough or that they understand the cruelty of which men are capable and the delight that many men will take in seeing you choose to chain yourself - then they get to say 'See, you did it yourself.'"

"'Thank you' is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding."

"And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read."

"In search of my mother's garden, I found my own."

"It is a enduring truth that patience is not passive waiting; it is active endurance with a calm countenance — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"A mindful spirit recognizes that the light of knowledge dispels the darkness of ignorance."

"The richness of existence is found in simple harmonies, not superfluous splendors. Remember this in moments of decisive trial."

"His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge."