The real writer is one who really writes.

It hurts to love wide open stretching the muscles... It hurts to thwart the reflexes of grab, of clutch; to love and let go again and again.

Every Jewish holiday has a religious significance, a historical significance, and a relevance to the time of year in the natural calendar of the seasons and trees and growing things, as well as a personal significance. So you are always looking backward, outward, inward and forward.

I don't even remember what Mother and I quarreled about: it is a continual quarrel that began when I reached puberty.

Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third.

The best gift you can give is a hug: one size fits all and no one ever minds if you return it.

The sense of being Jewish never left me, but when my grandmother died, I rebelled against Judaism as I knew it then, which was Orthodox. I saw the rituals, a lot of them, as very male, for a long time.