Five tender apricots in a blue bowl, a brief and exact promise of things to come.

The Italians have their priorities right: They're driven, they do their work, but they really enjoy the day-to-day and they don't put off the enjoyment of the everyday for some future goal.

Venice, the most touristy place in the world, is still just completely magic to me.

Splendid to arrive alone in a foreign country and feel the assault of difference. Here they are all along, busy with living; they don't talk or look like me. The rhythm of their day is entirely different; I am foreign.

Sometimes you have to travel back in time, skirting the obstacles, in order to love someone.

May summer last a hundred years.

I was born and grew up in Fitzgerald, way down in south Georgia. It was a mill town and my family ran the cotton mill. My grandfather was mayor many times and my family felt deeply rooted to that spot.