Only friends will tell you the truths you need to hear to make your life bearable.

The act of nutrition is not a purely physiological event... The family meal is a formality that cultivates in us... a capacity for sharing, generosity, thoughtfulness, a talent for civilized conversation.

Art is both a vengeance against reality and a reconciliation with it.

All our parents have levels of deviousness. We're driven to write about this discrepancy between the bright shining selves they invented and the monsters lurking underneath.

We write out of revenge against reality, to dream and enter the lives of others.

Why are there no great women artists?' sounds as ignorant of human geography as the query 'Why are there no Eskimo tennis teams?

Oh, save me God, but not quite yet.