In a country that doesn't discriminate between fame and infamy, the latter presents itself as plainly more achievable.

The Web, the great time-killer that had replaced conspicuously passive television with its seductive illusion of productivity.

I first foreswore motherhood when I was about eight years old. ... [Children] were annoying. We were loud and sneaky and broke things. As an eight-year-old, maybe I was simply mortified by the prospect of being saddled with myself.

Many, if not most, countries blithely expect their citizens to have carte blanche access to the U.S., "land of immigrants," as a veritable human right, but put up all manner of barriers to Americans who want to emigrate in the opposite direction.

...some people coddle their own afflictions the way others spoil small pedigreed dogs with cans of pate.

I thought at the time that I couldn't be horrified anymore, or wounded. I suppose that's a common conceit, that you've already been so damaged that damage itself, in its totality, makes you safe.

The existence of other people is essentially awkward.