We are not here to see through one another, but to see one another through.

Tell the truth as you understand it. If you're a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act - truth is always subversive.

When I was young, I used to be so jealous of other girls that it crippled me.

One thing I know for sure about raising children is that every single day a kid needs discipline.... But also every single day a kid needs a break.

No matter how people mess with you or let you down, or how you let yourself down, a good book means that when you get in bed that night, you have a good hour. I feel like you pay all day for that hour. That's what books mean to me. I can open this two-dimensional , flat white page with squiggly little black marks on them, and someone has created this world that you're going to enter into.

Toddlers can make you feel as if you have violated some archaic law in their personal Koran and you should die, infidel.

Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Don't worry about appearing sentimental. Worry about being unavailable; worry about being absent or fraudulent.