I don't know if my mother was a narcissist - or bi-polar or borderline. Those were words she tossed around over the years.

Settling other people's land is an American tradition.

A lot of positive psychology is stuck in being the psychology of privilege, and I reject that.

I'm sure there were plenty of loving, attentive mothers in the 'me generation,' but none of them lived at my house.

The last introvert in a world of extroverts. Silence: my response to both emptiness and saturation. But silence frightens people. I had to learn how to talk. Out of politeness.

Maybe it goes without saying that if you want to become a famous writer before you’re dead, you’ll have to write something. But the folks in my classes with the biggest ideas and the best publicity shots ready to grace the back covers of their best-selling novels are also usually the ones who aren’t holding any paper.

When I was a kid, my mother's parenting style teetered between benign neglect and intense bouts of violence.