Anyone who has breast-fed knows two things for sure: The baby wants to be fed at the most inopportune times, in the most inopportune places, and the baby will prevail.... And so the baby should, and the mom, too. Sometimes a breast is a sexual object, and sometimes it's a food delivery system, and one need not preclude nor color the other.

I believe that in a contest between the living and the almost living, the latter must, if necessary, give way to the will of the former.

Speech is the voice of the heart.

Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live.

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

I know a lot and have written a lot and have thought a lot about motherhood.

I have a cat, the pet that ranks just above a throw pillow in terms of required responsibility.