successful parenting was like log rolling, and she'd often landed in the drink.

One didn't issue instructions to comets. Grown children did what they had to do, and parents could only grit their teeth and watch and pray for them to get through it.

Just as you began to feel that you could make good use of time, there was no time left to you.

Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease.

The strength you've insisted on assigning to others is actually within yourself.

I wrote for twelve years and collected 250 rejection slips before getting any fiction published, so I guess outside reinforcement isn't all that important to me.

If this was adulthood the only improvement she could detect in her situation was that she could now eat dessert without eating her vegetables.