Parents have railed against shelters near schools, but no one has made any connection between the crazed consumerism of our kids and their elders' cold unconcern toward others. Maybe the homeless are not the only ones who need to spend time in these places to thaw out.

It would take a helluva man to replace no man at all.

I think there are some stories that need to be told by a specific person as opposed to in the third person.

People have writer's block not because they can't write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.

the joy of someone who had been a reader all her life, whose world had been immeasurably enlarged by the words of others.

What had I expected of the first child? Everything. Rocket scientist. Neurosurgeon. Designated hitter. We talked wisely at cocktail parties about the sad mistake our mothers had made in pinning all their hopes and dreams on us. We were full of it.

Look around at the azaleas making fuchsia star bursts in spring; look at a full moon hanging silver in a black sky on a cold night. And realize that life is glorious, and that you have no business taking it for granted.