You know things are bad when a woman without any legs and who recently lost two of her own kids feels sorry for you.

I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer's block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don't. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done.

In the places that call me out, I know I'll recover my wordless childhood trust in the largeness of life and its willingness to take me in.

there are people who read my work and accuse me of being political! As far as I'm concerned that's like accusing a dog of having a bark!

She kept swimming out into life because she hadn't yet found a rock to stand on.

Most of the girls my age, or even younger, have babies. They appear way too young to be married, till you look in their eyes. Then you'll see it. Their eyes look happy and sad at the same time, but unexcited by anything, shifting easily off to the side as if they've already seen most of what there is. Married eyes.

Of the two hundred bones in the human body, more than a quarter are in the foot. It is a more complicated instrument than an automobile transmission, and it is treated with far less consideration.