I got a fortune cookie that said, "To remember is to understand." I have never forgotten it. A good judge remembers what it was like to be a lawyer. A good editor remembers being a writer. A good parent remembers what it was like to be a child.

The Statue of Liberty is meant to be shorthand for a country so unlike its parts that a trip from California to Indiana should require a passport.

Writing seems to be the only profession people imagine you can do by thinking about doing it.

The one thing that I always got positive reinforcement for from teachers, who really changed my life, was the written word.

[I]n contrast to the common belief that they are the world's greatest cynics, the best journalists are the world's great idealists. They have experienced firsthand the great soothing balance of human existence. For every disgrace there is triumph, for every wrong there is a moment of justice, for every funeral a wedding, for every obituary a birth announcement.

high fashion has little to do with what women wear and a lot to do with what retailers mark down later.

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