You have to be a lover of books without expecting more of them than they give - a little pleasure, a little insight, a moment of escape, a deepening of your own humanity. Not much else.

You can be creative and not addictive, or addictive and not creative. Most addicted people do not produce anything of remarkable note.

Our mythology tells us so much about fathers and sons. ... What do we know about mothers and daughters? ... Our power is so oblique, so hidden, so ethereal a matter, that we rarely struggle with our daughters over actual kingdoms or corporate shares. On the other hand, our attractiveness dries as theirs blooms, our journey shortens just as theirs begins. We too must be afraid and awed and amazed that we cannot live forever and that our replacements are eager for their turn, indifferent to our wishes, ready to leave us behind.

I am not a perfect friend, and it is impossible not to rebuff or be rebuffed if you move about the world.

God is a God of Lovingkindness.

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.

One of the things about parents and children is that there is no way that you go through this without there being mutual anger.