I spent my whole life helping my mother carry around her psychic trunks like a bitter bellhop. So a great load was lifted when she died, and my life was much easier.

Living on Earth has always been a dangerous way to spend your time.

In fact, not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.

Write as if your parents are dead.

It's good to do uncomfortable things. It's weight training for life.

Life is like a recycling center, where all the concerns and dramas of humankind get recycled back and forth across the universe. But what you have to offer is your own sensibility, maybe your own sense of humor or insider pathos or meaning. All of us can sing the same song, and there will still be four billion different renditions.

Some people may have thought that this book was too personal, too confessional. But what these people think about me is none of my business.