Well, we tell our kids things like 'don't gossip' and then an hour later they hear us on the phone. Stuff like that.

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

The absence on the panel of anyone who could become pregnant accidentally or discover her salary was five thousand dollars a yearless than that of her male counterpart meant there was a hole in the consciousness of the committee that empathy, however welcome, could not entirely fill.

the separation of church and state grew out of a desire, not so much to protect government from religion, but to protect religion from government.

I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and one of the things I like to say is that one of the biggest impediments I had to becoming a successful writer is I had a very happy childhood.

high fashion has little to do with what women wear and a lot to do with what retailers mark down later.

Barack Obama presents as kind of a cool character, and I think that that's his natural personality.