Stop a minute, right where you are. Relax your shoulders, shake your head and spine like a dog shaking off cold water. Tell that imperious voice in your head to be still.

it takes your sleeping self years to catch up to where you really are. ... when you go on a trip, in your dreams you will still be home. Then after you've come home you'll dream of where you were. It's a kind of jet lag of the consciousness.

Food is the rare moral arena in which the ethical choice is generally the one more likely to make you groan with pleasure.

People read books to escape the uncertainties of life.

The average food item on a U.S. grocery shelf has traveled farther than most families go on their annual vacations.

Beginning a novel is always hard. It feels like going nowhere. I always have to write at least 100 pages that go into the trashcan before it finally begins to work. It's discouraging, but necessary to write those pages. I try to consider them pages -100 to zero of the novel.

The happiest people are the ones with the most community.