I didn't anticipate the primal quality of my pleasure, the raw physicality of it, the way my whole body leaps forward when I see my grandsons after a few days' absence.

Friendships aren't perfect and yet they are very precious. For me, not expecting perfection all in one place was a great release.

I want to visit Memory Lane, I don't want to live there.

Control is a big issue when you're sick. It's the first thing you lose - other losses come later.

Work-family conflicts - the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child - would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children.

What I often say to people who are quick to say I’m not a feminist is if you think you’re not a feminist, give it all back.

As the mother of a son, I do not accept that alienation from me is necessary for his discovery of himself. As a woman, I will not cooperate in demeaning womanly things so that he can be proud to be a man. I like to think the women in my son's future are counting on me.