"There's no such thing as luck. Luck is where preparation meets opportunity."

“The marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one sixth of the population of democratic America is denied it's privileges by the law of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, boasting of it's humanity, boasting of its Christianity, boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?”

“The whole world is a dream; even this (the waking state) is a dream ... What you dreamt last night does not exist now.”

“I never lost my belief, in the midst of setbacks which were not spared me during my period of struggle. Providence has had the last word and brought me success.”

“The sole philosophy open to those who doubt the possibility of truth is absolute silence -- even mental.”

“I didn't grow up with my mother, and so losing her for real was like, some sort of latent childhood, some sort of unresolved issue. When she left for real, it was sort of like, I was done.”

“Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.”

“Honesty is reached through the doorway of grief and loss.”

“So in the first draft, I'm inventing people and place with a broad schematic idea of what's going to happen. In the process, of course, I discover all sorts of bigger and more substantial things.”