I'm just remembering myself at 22 or 23. I was all engine and no steering. (Laughter) I had the wheels but I had no steering. I do think it's true that when you're younger, you're more likely to listen to all the naysayers, and people are always telling you how you ought to behave and what kind of job you should get and how you should look.

Reading is another thing that has made me more human by exposing me to worlds I might never have entered and people I might never meet.

When children are small, parents should run their lives and not the other way around.

Figuring out who you are is the whole point of the human experience.

On social welfare the Church does so much good around the world - nuns running schools and homeless shelters, priests ministering to people who are in crisis.

I remember adolescence, the years of having the impulse control of a mousetrap, of being as private as a safe-deposit box.

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.