Dani Shapiro

We can't protect ourselves from pain and heartache.

— Dani Shapiro

I'm an urban person who loves living in the country.

— Dani Shapiro

You can start your day over anytime.

— Dani Shapiro

Logic and faith don't occupy the same side.

— Dani Shapiro

Recognize the possibility of the divine in any given moment.

— Dani Shapiro

Traces that live within us often lead us to our stories

— Dani Shapiro

“I was longing for the moment I was in, even as I was in it.”

— Dani Shapiro

I did want to feel like life's all of one piece.

— Dani Shapiro

From spiritual connection springs kindness, connection, social activism, and love.

— Dani Shapiro

In every generation there is a vault-keeper, one who guards the links fiercely and knows they are more precious than rubies.

— Dani Shapiro

“Apparently, using two spaces after a period has become anachronistic. But tell that to my right thumb. —”

— Dani Shapiro

I started realising that the themes running through all of my novels were really haunting and obsessing me about my own life.

— Dani Shapiro

Moving to the country has been incredibly good for my work, for my sense of perspective.

— Dani Shapiro

In my life as a wife and mother, I'm always conscious of my desire to be present.

— Dani Shapiro

My parents made the decision never to focus on my looks, and I had no sense of myself as beautiful.

— Dani Shapiro

If I dismiss the ordinary—waiting for the special, the extreme, the extraordinary to happen—I may just miss my life.

— Dani Shapiro

It's essential to have sacred time for writing. All successful authors have some daily commitment to keep on-track and moving forward.

— Dani Shapiro

When I near the end of a book, it feels as if the entire universe meets me more than halfway and supports…

— Dani Shapiro

I live with my family on the top of a hill in the country, and during the days, my house is quiet,…

— Dani Shapiro

If you are a writer or any kind of artist, if you change something as fundamental as where you live - the…

— Dani Shapiro

Novels are my favorite to write and read. I do like writing personal essays, too. I'm not really a short story writer,…

— Dani Shapiro

Sometimes when I'm at my desk, I'll realize that I have contorted myself completely, and I haven't moved for hours, and that…

— Dani Shapiro

This sadness wasn't a huge part of me--I wasn't remotely depressed--but still, it was like a stone I carried in my pocket.…

— Dani Shapiro

I'm a full-time writer, which means I have the entire day to get my work done. But that can also be bad,…

— Dani Shapiro

“I can tell you that the writing of a book, no matter how deeply, profoundly personal-if it is literature, if you have…

— Dani Shapiro

“If we are artists- hell, whether or not we're artists- it is our job, our responsibility, perhaps even our sacred calling, to…

— Dani Shapiro

I don't know why this is, but I really believe that things don't happen when we're trying to will them into being.…

— Dani Shapiro

“Every once in a while, the darkness was too much. It had been quite some time since I had woken up in…

— Dani Shapiro

With tremendous clarity and wisdom, Daniel Tomasulo has crafted a memoir at once heartbreaking and uplifting. Layers of time and memory—childhood, adolescence,…

— Dani Shapiro

The writing life requires courage, patience, persistence, empathy, openness, and the ability to deal with rejection. It requires the willingness to be…

— Dani Shapiro

When I lived in the city, I had learned to close my door against a lot of the noise, but when I…

— Dani Shapiro

“But when the self—not a fictional character—is the landscape of the story, we can’t afford to be blind to our own themes…

— Dani Shapiro

“We did not spend our days gazing into each other’s eyes. We did that gazing when we made love or when one…

— Dani Shapiro

“Sort pills. Write note to family. Fold blanket. I am alone. Alone in a dark, unfamiliar room filled with piles and piles…

— Dani Shapiro

“It wasn't getting easier because it isn't supposed to get easier. Midlife was a bitch, and my educated guess was that the…

— Dani Shapiro

“When writers who are just starting out ask me when it gets easier, my answer is never. It never gets easier. I…

— Dani Shapiro

“This is in the natural order of things--the time of life we've now entered. The afternoon , as Jung called it. Thoroughly…

— Dani Shapiro

“Still writing?" I usually nod and smile, then quickly change the subject. But here is what I would like to put down…

— Dani Shapiro

A writer with her work needs to be like a dog with a bone all the time. She needs to know where…

— Dani Shapiro

In the country, I stopped being a person who, in the words of Sylvia Boorstein, startles easily. I grew calmer, but beneath…

— Dani Shapiro