You're not a wave, you're a part of the ocean.
The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
I used to be a classic workaholic, and after seeing how little work and career really mean when you reach the end of your life, I put a new emphasis on things I believe count more. These things include: family, friends, being part of a community, and appreciating the little joys of the average day.
If you're always battling against getting older, you're always going to be unhappy, because it's going to happen anyhow.
People are only mean when they're threatened, and that's what our culture does. That's what our economy does.
Love each other or die.
Detroit is a place where we've had it pretty tough. But there is a generosity here and a well of kindness that goes deep.
We all lose somebody we care about and want to find some comforting way of dealing with it, something that will give us a little closure, a little peace.
I believe that you live on inside the hearts and minds of everyone you've touched while you were here on earth.
Anyone who tries to write a memoir needs to keep in mind that what's interesting to you isn't necessarily interesting to a reader.
If you really could fit God in a file, you wouldn't need to believe in God, you know, you'd just go get the file like a box of corn flakes off the shelf.
You have to work at creating your own culture.
I don't know about Heaven or Hell, but I do know that we are visited all the time by the spirits of those who affected us in life.
You have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.
For years I wrote in my basement. More recently I graduated to one floor above, an office with all my books and music and - ta da! - a window.
I've always said I have one skill. That skill - if I have it at all - is storytelling.
My own father didn't talk a lot about feelings or emotions.
A memoir should have some uplifting quality, inspiring or illuminating, and that's what separates a life story that can influence other people.
In a newspaper, you only have so much room. It teaches you the value of getting to the point, of not pampering yourself with your glorious writing. I've always been much more interested in one powerful sentence that stays with you. That's my style.
I believe the biggest themes of life are put into the best focus when held up against the very sharp light of mortality.
