I'm very disciplined, but the one thing that I have addictive behavior about is the Internet.

Michael Lowenthal has written a big-hearted and wise book about familial love in all its richness and complexity.

My desk is covered with talismans: pieces of rose quartz, wishing stones from a favorite beach.

I've certainly faced some raw, real pain in my life. I lost my father to a car accident when I was young. My mother died ten years ago. My son was very sick as an infant. Eventually, I have attempted to transform this pain into art, to make meaning out of it.

It is in the thousands of days of trying, failing, sitting, thinking, resisting, dreaming, raveling, unraveling that we are at our most engaged, alert, and alive.

There's something about urban life - you walk out your door, and you're in a steady of stream of life happening around you, and it's very easy to get caught up in that stream and simply kind of keep on moving.

I think so much about how we read, about the nature of solitude, and of community, is changing in ways that none of us yet understand.