She gave him such a look... Man oh man, if looks could kill. That one might have totalled a city block.

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.

I think the most un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that.'

Where I come from, when a Catholic marries a Lutheran it is considered the first step on the road to Minneapolis.

Writing is the main gig and teaching and performing are sidelines, an excuse for not writing more. Working on a novel and on an opera make me seriously want to retire and find a volunteer job as a docent at the zoo explaining to schoolchildren where frogs go in the winter.

I felt bad for that world that we have given a generation of kids.

To Norwegians, the polka is a form of martial art.