I think I'm like most novelists in that my books have gotten farther and farther away from autobiography the longer I've been writing them.

Parents have railed against shelters near schools, but no one has made any connection between the crazed consumerism of our kids and their elders' cold unconcern toward others. Maybe the homeless are not the only ones who need to spend time in these places to thaw out.

knowledge of our own mortality is the greatest gift God ever gives us.

The truth is that when you're writing a novel you're really living in it; you're living in the house, and you're living in the town.

I think the last couple of years of life for many, many people are the same as they were 50, 60, 70 years ago. They could be really tough because of infirmity.

It's an odd kind of feeling because it sort of reminds me of being five again. When you're a five-year-old, you don't pay any attention to what anyone thinks of you. You just sort of are in your skin.

I can't think of a single downside to motherhood now.