Every great culture has cared a lot, one way or another, about the fate of its girls.

It can be demonstrated from history that no society has ever survived after its family life deteriorated.

Every great culture has cared a lot, one way or another, about the fate of its girls.

To really love Joan Didion—to have been blown over by things like the smell of jasmine and the packing list she kept by her suitcase—you have to be female.

If you're a writer, you just keep following the path - keep going deeper and deeper into the things that interest you.

I was really influenced by Joan Didion and Pauline Kael; they were both at the height of their influence when I was coming into my own as a reader.

What the altar-bound of today end up buying from their numberless vendors is a dog's breakfast of bridal excess - part society wedding of the twenties, part Long Island Italian wedding of the fifties. It's The Philadelphia Story and The Wedding Singer served up together in one curious and costly buffet.