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

Girls are the best readers in the world. Reading is really a way of kind of escaping so deeply into yourself and pursuing your own thoughts within the construct of a story.

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

Becoming a woman is an act partly of nature and partly of self-invention.

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.

I used to teach at a private school, and the parents thought I loved their children. I did not love their children! I liked them well enough, but I was always delighted to see them go off for summer vacation.

My father was a writer; I've known a lot of children of writers - daughters and sons of writers, and it can be a hard way to grow up.