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

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

And a great misunderstanding is that children think their parents are grown-up, and parents feel obliged to act as if they were.

I don't have to listen to the Gospel on Sunday to know the stories of the New Testament. They inform so much of what I write that they're practically like a news scrim that goes through my brain 24/7.

The world is full of women blindsided by the unceasing demands of motherhood, still flabbergasted by how a job can be terrific andtorturous, involving and utterly tedious, all at the same time. The world is full of women made to feel strange because what everyone assumes comes naturally is so difficult to do--never mind to do well.

Over the last twenty years, we've changed the world just enough to make it radically different, but not enough to make it work.

A writer is always working with whatever she's managed to store in the brainpan or puzzle out about the world.