This may be a little bit of a provocative thing to say, but the memoirist doesn't owe the reader anything other than a good story and the inclining of the mind in the direction of memory. Of course, the memoirist is not allowed to make things up. But the really skilled memoirist knows what to leave in and what to leave out to serve the story. In autobiography you can't do that.

Part of my spiritual work is learning to live with the knowledge that we can't protect our loved ones from pain and heartache.

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

In a creative journey, it is essential, no matter how far one runs, to examine that which is closest to home.

I don't want to lean back into the past, or forward into the future. I don't want to wish the present moment away.

Strange - I'm not much of a film person. I love watching films, but they don't stay with me the way books do. Stranger still, because my husband is a screenwriter!

Our minds have a tendency to wander. To duck and feint and keep us at a slight remove from the moment at hand.