Fifty years ago, teachers said their top discipline problems were talking, chewing gum, making noise, and running in the halls. The current list, by contrast, sounds like a cross between a rap sheet and the seven deadly sins.

I do a lot of mental work before I ever start writing.

She say guilt is a useless emotion." "Oh, please," says Nancy. "Guilt is what separates humans from animals.

It is so easy to exist instead of live.

Speech is the voice of the heart.

I do get a sense that there's a huge disconnect between the political powers and what's really happening, so right-wing conservatives can talk about contraception all they want, but the women of America are using birth control. It's as simple as that.

All reading is good reading. And all reading of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens is sublime reading.