A good home must be made, not bought.

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

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

It's sad but true that if you focus your attention on housework and meal preparation and diapers, raising children does start to look like drudgery pretty quickly. On the other hand, if you see yourself as nothing less than your child's nurturer, role model, teacher, spiritual guide, and mentor, your days take on a very different cast.

No, I said. I didn't remember that. There was so much to remember, sometimes the best thing was to forget.

The painter who feels obligated to depict his subjects as uniformly beautiful or handsome and without flaws will fall short of making art.

[On home births:] In a house where there had been three people, there were now four, although no one had come in the door.