"Two things put me in the spirit to give. One is that I have come to think of everyone with whom I come into contast as a patient in the emergency room. I see a lot of gaping wounds and dazed expressions. Or, as Marianne Moore put it, "The world's an orphan's home." And this feels more true than almost anything else I know. But so many of us can be soothed by writing: think of how many times you have opened a book, read one line, and said, "Yes!" And I want to give people that feeling, too, of connection, communication."

You may also like:

• 

  Ann Patchett
  Author

• 

  Brené Brown
  Author

• 

  Donald Miller
  Author

• 

  Elizabeth Gilbert
  Author

• 

  Frederick Buechner
  Writer

• 

  Julia Cameron
  Teacher

• 

  Marianne Williamson
  Author

• 

  Natalie Goldberg
  Author

• 

  Sam Lamott
  Author