Imagine if you succeeded in making the world perfect for your children what a shock the rest of life would be for them.

For 25 years, I did take my responsibilities as a pleaser of others sufficiently seriously.

Long after Salinger sent me away, I continued to believe his standards and expectations were the best ones.

My job is writing. I get paid to do it. When was the last time you heard someone challenge a doctor for making money off of cancer?

I have long observed that the act of writing is viewed, by some, as an elite and otherworldly act, all the more so if a person isn't paid for what she writes.

It troubles me that people speak about writing for money as ugly and distasteful.

The silence was part of the story I wanted to tell.