Nowadays, I dont have expectations, and this way she beats them all.

Be kind to others before you take care of yourself; make whoever you're with feel like they matter.

Many of my books come from what if questions that I can't answer, things that I'm worried about as either a woman, a wife, a mom, an American.

How do you know that you are not part of a book? That someone's not reading your story right now?

Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life.

Life, it turns out, goes on. There is no cosmic rule that grants you immunity from the details just because you have come face-to-face with a catastrophe. The garbage can still overflow, the bills arrive in the mail, telemarketers, interrupt dinner.

When this is over...we will got to the rainforest, or a beach as white as bone. We will eat grapes from the vine, we will swim with sea turtles, we will walk miles on cobblestone streets. We will laugh and talk and confess. We will.