It is only with distance that we are able to turn our powers of observation on ourselves, thus fashioning stories in which we are characters.

Everything changes. The more I try to hold on to the moment, the more it slips through my fingers.

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

Courage is more important than confidence

We don't ruminate during a fight. Maybe in a bath, or driving a car, or as we take a walk. But not right smack in the middle of a dramatic moment.

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

When I started meditating, even doing yoga, I felt like it was hard to allow myself to develop any other kind of practice [outside of Judaism], like I was somehow being untrue to my heritage, and that was something I had to get over and was probably the greatest revelation to me.