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

You can’t replace people you love with other people…But you can trust that you’re not going to run out of people to love.

But still, I’d be darned if I was going to be one of those Americans who stomp around Italy barking commands in ever-louder English. I was going to be one of those Americans who traversed Italy with my forehead knit in concentration, divining wordsw from their Latin roots and answering by wedging French cognates into Italian pronunciations spliced onto a standard Spanish verb conjugation.

April is the cruelest month, T.S. Eliot wrote, by which I think he meant (among other things) that springtime makes people crazy. We expect too much, the world burgeons with promises it can't keep, all passion is really a setup, and we're doomed to get our hearts broken yet again. I agree, and would further add: Who cares? Every spring I go out there anyway, around the bend, unconditionally. ... Come the end of the dark days, I am more than joyful. I'm nuts.

Quit smoking, and observe posted speed limits. This will improve your odds of getting old enough to be wise.

I don't bring expectations to any of my books. I don't tell people what to do. I want to invite them in.

The most assiduous task of parenting is to divine the difference between boundaries and bondage.