Half an ear cocked, something in me, all night, every night, is waiting for you to come home.

I was suffering from the delusion that it's the thought that counts.

It is never persuasive to argue that you are not the kind of person who does what you are actually doing.

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.

One of my problems with terrorism is that it's self-evidently bad. The main thing that makes it complicated is the fact that it works. When you go at it with a moral hammer, it's really, really bad. It's so bad you wouldn't believe it because you don't accomplish anything. I think the one thing terrorists themselves are vulnerable to is mockery. It's an excellent weapon.

The discovery that heartbreak is indeed heartbreaking consoles us about our humanity.

Desire is one of the burning experiences of human life.