what we call things matters. ... The words we use, and how we perceive those words, reflect how we value, or devalue, people, places, and things.

Jane Austen may not be the best writer, but she certainly writes about the best people. And by that I mean people just like me.

Women who marry early are often overly enamored of the kind of man who looks great in wedding pictures and passes the maid of honor his telephone number.

I don't know what I would do in the world without [female friends] for advice, for comfort, for simply knowing that there is someone out there who knows me as I am, and loves me despite and because of it.

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

Ideas are only lethal if you suppress and don't discuss them. Ignorance is not bliss, it's stupid. Banning books shows you don't trust your kids to think and you don't trust yourself to be able to talk to them.

My father expected his first child to be a boy, and when it didn't turn out that way he didn't let the fact get in the way of a good story.