When you really want to say no, say no. You can't do everything - or at least not well.

I wondered why I hadn't loved that day more, why I hadn't savored every bit of it...why I hadn't known how good it was to live so normally, so everyday. But you only know that, I suppose, after it's not normal and every day any longer.

If I had to guess what the new Etch-A-Sketch picture is going to be like, it's going to be considerably less to the right. Romney has backed himself into a couple of corners that I don't think will serve him well in the general election, the main one being very harsh stands on immigration, which I think are not only short-sighted but to my mind immoral.

Choose the kids. There will be plenty of time later to choose work.

The victim mentality may be the last uncomplicated thing about life in America.

Life is not so much about beginnings and endings as it is about going on and on and on. It is about muddling through the middle.

I think one of the hardest things about doing a book in the first person is that to a certain extent each day, when you begin to do your work, you're climbing into somebody else's skin.