There is something so settled and stodgy about turning a great romance into next of kin on an emergency room form, and something so soothing and special, too.

Decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter and more compressed.

It's an odd kind of feeling because it sort of reminds me of being five again. When you're a five-year-old, you don't pay any attention to what anyone thinks of you. You just sort of are in your skin.

There are a million moving parts to raising kids, and you can't always anticipate them all, especially when they are teenagers and their peers play such a huge role in their lives. If you offer independence, there is one kind of pitfall; if you shelter them too much, there is another. And sometimes you do everything right and something bad just happens. It's as simple, and as scary, as that.

And sometimes you do everything right and something bad just happens. It's as simple, and as scary, as that.

Keeping kids safe is sometimes a delusion. The world is a perilous place. Sometimes the kitchen is a perilous place.