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

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

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.

Your hair isn't quite right and maybe you're a size bigger than you should be and on and on and on. I think there comes a moment when you've matured to the point where you suddenly think, nonsense. I am fine just the way I am.

When men do the dishes, it's called helping. When women do the dishes, it is called life.

New York City has finally hired women to pick up the garbage, which makes sense to me, since, as I've discovered, a good bit of being a woman consists of picking up garbage.

London has the trick of making its past, its long indelible past, always a part of its present. And for that reason it will always have meaning for the future, because of all it can teach about disaster, survival, and redemption. It is all there in the streets. It is all there in the books.