I have an intimate relationship with books. After all, I take them with me into the bathtub-not an invitation I offer lightly.

I personally translated the word 'vendetta' as Italian for 'What do you mean, "you want to see other women"?

Humor is a show of both strength and of vulnerability: you are willing to make the first move but you are trusting in the response of your listener.

I am constantly surprised that the simple word 'feminism' raises more eyebrows and initiates more sad-faced head-shaking than any elaborate stream of invective I have ever leveled at either the I.R.S. or the D.M.V.

If you know you can do it - if you can already chart every day in your future - then why bother? Choose to do something you have more trouble imagining. Take a chance.

Envy is what makes you, when an acquaintance is lustily telling you that she's dating a Greek god of a guy, ask, 'Which one, Hades?'

As a kid, you await holidays with a wide-eyed, passionate, almost maniacal enthusiasm. Heavy breathing is involved.