“For my father there was no sharper way to understand a country than by listening to its stories.”

“Just as women's bodies are softer than men's, so their understanding is sharper.”

“It's the way our founding fathers would have wanted it, if they had founded corporations instead of just a country.”

“They have the unique ability to listen to one story and understand another.”

“Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.”

“All of us are part of a big story. It is a story that is much bigger than we know. Do not confuse the life you live with the story. Do not be afraid to leave the story. You may get scared sometimes because you fail to understand that what is scared is not you. It's the story. The story looks for a way to travel. The story is afraid you will let go.”