Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.

These days cry out, as never before, for us to pay attention, so we can move through them and get our joy and pride back.

Pay attention to the beauty surrounding you.

When hope is not pinned wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation, it sometimes floats forth and opens.

Novels ought to have hope; at least, American novels ought to have hope. French novels don't need to. We mostly win wars, they lose them. Of course, they did hide more Jews than many other countries, and this is a form of winning.

Mothering has been the richest experience of my life, but I am still opposed to Mother's Day. It perpetuates the dangerous idea that all parents are somehow superior to non-parents.

My heart was broken and my head was just barely inhabitable