if you are a stepparent, rush right out and get yourself a dog. Because it's very nice to have someone in the house that loves you.

writing is how I understand everything that happens. Writing is the only way I know to move on.

Preparing for the worst is an activity I have taken up since I turned thirty-five, and the worst actually began to happen.

One cannot overstate the potential for hysteria on a movie set. Everyone always acts as if making the movie is as important as eradicating malaria.

Children are a house's enemy. They don't mean to be - they just can't help it. It's their enthusiasm, their energy, their naturally destructive tendencies.

In your standard-issue family, of which few remain, but on which our expectations are still based, there are parents and there are children. The way you know which are which, aside from certain size and age differences and despite any behavior similarities, is that the parents are the bossy ones.

As complicated as joint custody is, it allows the delicious contradiction of having children and maintaining the intimacy of life-before-kid s.