You have to be alert. When my daughter, Sophie, came out of the womb, she was instantly alert, as if she had been here before. And she was a little disappointed that she was here again.

Just because people don't meet you doesn't mean they're not out there breaking their asses trying to get around.

Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are doing pretty well at getting noticed - a lot of people are doing pretty well at it. But you wonder whether they'll last, because many of them don't have the ability to get an audience to love them. You say, "That's a fabulous body" or "I like that song"; you don't say, "I love them because I know them." You can't know them.

Total contentment is only for cows.

Writing a book is not as tough as it is to haul thirty-five people around the country and sweat like a horse five nights a week.

It's the one who won't be taken that cannot seem to give, and the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live.

Culturally, it's very hard to change people's attitudes about public space.