If you write memoir, it can't be about blame or hurt; it has to be creative.

Writing has been my window-flung wide open to this magnificent, chaotic existence-my way of interpreting everything within my grasp.

I never feel so alive as when I'm writing and the work is going well.

In my life as a wife and mother, I'm always conscious of my desire to be present.

This sadness wasn't a huge part of me--I wasn't remotely depressed--but still, it was like a stone I carried in my pocket. I always knew it was there. [p. 179]

In every generation there is a vault-keeper, one who guards the links fiercely and knows they are more precious than rubies.

If I dismiss the ordinary—waiting for the special, the extreme, the extraordinary to happen - I may just miss my life.