The central paradox of motherhood is that while our children become the absolute center of our lives, they must also push us backout in the world.... But motherhood that can narrow our lives can also broaden them. It can make us focus intensely on the moment and invest heavily in the future.

We want our children to fit in and to stand out. We rarely address the conflict between these goals.

She goes in with a prejudice and comes out with a statistic.

Maybe at 20 you can write well, but I don't think you could do what I do. Some things have to happen to you first.

This packrat has learned that what the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we loved. In the end, it's the family stories that are worth the storage.

I think most of us become self-critical as soon as we become self-conscious.

People have been writing premature obituaries on the women's movement since its beginning.