Our house is like an empty cigarette packet, lying around reminding you what's not in it.

I had decided early on that if I couldn’t dress elegant, I’d dress memorable.

What we lose in our great human exodus from the land is a rooted sense, as deep and intangible as religious faith, of why we need to hold on to the wild and beautiful places that once surrounded us.

The most important part of a story is the piece of it you don't know.

a meaningless phrase repeated again and again begins to resemble truth.

I attempted briefly to consecrate myself in the public library, believing every crack in my soul could be chinked with a book.

When the scope of the problem seems insuperable, isn't it time to call this one, give it up, and get on with life as we know it. I do know that answer to that one: that's called child abuse. When my teenager worries that her generation won't be able to fix this problem, I have to admit to her that it won't be up to her generation. It's up to mine. This is a now-or-never kind of project.