I haven't seen so much tippy-toeing around since the last time I went to the ballet. When members of the arts community were askedthis week about one of their biggest benefactors, Philip Morris, and its requests that they lobby the New York City Council on the company's behalf, the pas de deux of self- justification was so painstakingly choreographed that it constituted a performance all by itself.

When I'm falling, my girlfriends are my soft landing.

If an opportunity scares you, that's God's way of saying you should jump at it.

The truth about your own life is not always easy to accept, and sometimes hasn't even occurred to you.

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.

You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.

I think that after a while you realize that your husband can't be all things to you and certainly you don't want the kids to be all things to you, because that would be a terrible weight for them; and that where you really find solace a lot of the time is with your girlfriends.