The only siblings I have are half-siblings. My nuclear family would have been an extra-suffocating threesome. Instead, I have an interesting brother and sister, in-laws, and darling nephews.

Hungry ears are sharp ones.

Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states.

Vets do what doctors used to - diagnose the injury or the condition, patch it up as best they can and remind you that these things happen and that in life we are also in the midst of death.

The essence of charity ... was not deciding what others needed and giving it to them, but giving them what they wanted.

But what truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute-for horses

Some novelists are luckier than others in the eras of their formative intellectual years, but all Weltanschauungs return, which means that most novelists have at least a chance of a revival.