I never lose sight of the fact that before I was a writer, I was a teacher. I still am. My classroom's just gotten a little bigger.

Sometimes when you find something you didn't really realize you were looking for, you just don't know how to react.

It was the first time she'd discovered something she really didn't want to find, and she didn't know what to do once she'd found it.

I'm not saying you did the wrong thing. I'm not even saying it wasn't something I'd thought of doing, myself. But even if it was the just thing to do, or the fitting thing, it still wasn't the right thing.

I can see myself now, she said. And I can see what I want to be, ten years from now. But I don't understand how I'm going to get from here to there.

She wondered if this was true of every parent: if, prior to having children, they all used to be someone else.

We all have things that come back to haunt us. Some of us just see them more clearly than others.