I spent a week living as a man. Which was actually, I'm sorry to say, embarrassingly easy for me to do.

I was just really appalled, and I really kept quiet until I saw the governor [Rick Perry] get on and repeat the same words that the prosecution had used in the penalty phase: that he [Todd Willingham] was a monster. And that got me to get on to the computer and connect with some of the media and say: "I have his letters. He wasn't a monster. He was a caring individual." Let them see another side.

Just as there exists in writing a literal truth and a poetic truth, there also exists in a human being a literal anatomy and a poetic anatomy. One, you can see; one, you cannot. One is made of bones and teeth and flesh; the other is made of energy and memory and faith. But they are both equally true.

A glorious failure can sometimes be more life affirming than a cautious win.

We're already separated that's official but there's still a window of hope left open that perhaps someday we could give things another try.

What time has ever been a simple time for those who are living it?

Nobody's life is interesting enough to warrant a third memoir.