A woman whose smile is open and whose expression is glad has a kind of beauty no matter what she wears.

We have to recognize that it is a very, very painful thing for people to be exposed to their social community, to be exposed in the world, as not what they would have wanted to be seen as. This is very painful and difficult for people.

A person who has no secrets is a liar. We always fold ourselves away from others just enough to preserve a secret or two, something that we cannot share without destroying our inner landscape.

Reader, you forget that economics precedes religion; worship grew out of eating, not the other way around.

I really consider myself a writer, and a writer who is sometimes a social critic. I'm not an ideologue, I don't join a party. I follow along and take notes. Sometimes I throw in my two cents.

What other people think of me is not really my major concern in life. What other people think of what I write is another matter.

I know that family life in America is a minefield, an economic trap for women, a study in disappointment for both sexes.