[On writing her first poem at age eight:] An ode to my dead mother and father, who were both alive and pretty pissed off.

Our daily existence requires both closeness and distance, the wholeness of self, the wholeness of intimacy.

For some it takes a lifetime to find true love, But for the lucky ones a lifetime is merely enough to share the love they've found.

One advantage of marriage is that, when you fall out of love with him or he falls out of love with you, it keeps you together until you fall in again.

I had it together on Sunday. By Monday at noon it had cracked. On Tuesday debris Was descending on me. And by Wednesday no part was intact. On Thursday I picked up some pieces. On Friday I picked up the rest. By Saturday, late, It was almost set straight. And on Sunday the world was impressed With how well I had got it together.

For we lose not only by death, but also by leaving and being left, by changing and letting go and moving on.

Not listening is probably the commonest unkindness of married life, and one that creates - more devastatingly than an eternity of forgotten birthdays and misguided Christmas gifts - an atmosphere of not loving and not caring.