Since the age of five I had been one of those people who was an indefatigable reader, more inclined to go off by myself with a book than do any of the dozens of things that children usually do to amuse themselves. I never aged out of it.

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

I think when people keep saying to you, "You're good at this," you just keep doing it.

It's important to remember that feminism is no longer a group of organizations or leaders. It's the expectations that parents have for their daughters, and their sons, too. It's the way we talk about and treat one another. It's who makes the money and who makes the compromises and who makes dinner. It's a state of mind. It's the way we live now.

the joy of someone who had been a reader all her life, whose world had been immeasurably enlarged by the words of others.

If God had meant Harvard professors to appear in People magazine, She wouldn't have invented The New York Review of Books.

The life you have led doesn't need to be the only life you have.