All parents are an embarrassment to their kids. Often grandparents are the relief. Kids don't have to resist you.

Sometimes I think God loves the ones who most desperately ache and are most desperately lost - his or her wildest, most messed-up children - the way you'd ache and love a screwed-up rebel daughter in juvenile hall.

Mothers are supposed to listen and, afterward, to respond with some wisdom and perspective, but these things were not my mother's strong suit.

Here are the two best prayers I know: 'Help me, help me, help me' and 'Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And as it turns out, if one person is praying for you, buckle up. Things can happen.

Alice Adams wrote a sweet note to me after my first novel came out when I was 26, and I was so blown away that I sent her a bunch of stamps by return mail. I have no idea what I was thinking. It was a star-struck impulse.

I am all the ages I've ever been.