I am vain, or once was, and one of my vanities was to feign that I was not.

Worse, the deadly accuracy of filial faultfinding is facilitated by access, by trust, by willing disclosure, and so constitutes a double betrayal.

A lot of people get so hung up on what they can't have that they don't think for a second about whether they really want it.

Children live in the same world we do. To kid ourselves that we can shelter them from it isn't just naive it's a vanity.

The secret is that there is no secret.

Holocausts do not amaze me. Rapes and child slavery do not amaze me. And Franklin, I know you feel otherwise, but Kevin does not amaze me. I am amazed when I drop a glove in the street and a teenager runs two blocks to return it. I am amazed when a checkout girl flashes me a wide smile with my change, though my own face had been a mask of expedience. Lost wallets posted to their owners, strangers who furnish meticulous directions, neighbors who water each other's houseplants - these things amaze me.

Size is relative. If everyone is fat, no-one is fat