I have no end of failings as a mother, but I have always followed the rules.

The fact that my clothing has been visually available to other people I do not find upsetting. The body is another matter. It is mine; I have found it useful; but it is an avatar.

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.

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

...hoarders of guilty secrets are inevitably consumed with appearances.

I have no end of failings as a mother, but I have always followed the rules.

A successful lie cannot be brought into this world and capriciously abandoned; like any committed relationship, it must be maintained, and with far more devotion than the truth, which carries on being carelessly true without any help.