Someone told me something recently about Sarah Palin, someone I trusted in the book business. They said, "I worked with Palin. She did an event at my bookstore, and she was really, really nice, and even more beautiful in person." I didn't want to hear that. I wanted to hear that she was awful and hideous-looking. But I thought, I have to listen to that. I have to hear that. I don't want to be the one who is going to deny anything complimentary said about somebody just because I disagree with that person.

I can't seem to fathom that the things important to me are not important to other people as well, and so I come off sounding like a missionary, someone whose job it is to convert rather than listen.

My feet are completely flat, but for most of my life they were still shaped like feet. Now, thanks to bunions, they're shaped more like states, wide boring ones that nobody wants to drive through.

Paul Rudnick is a champion of truth (and love and great wicked humor) whom we ignore at our peril.

This was the consequence of seeing too much and understanding the horrible truth: No one is safe. The world is not manageable.

but I have no mind for business and considered staying awake to be enough of an accomplishment.

Usually, if I think something is really funny, it doesn't get any reaction whatsoever.