Now that I am in my forties, she [my mother] tells me I'm beautiful; now that I am in my forties, she sends me presents and we have the long, personal and even remarkably honest phone calls I always wanted so intensely I forbade myself to imagine them. How strange. Perhaps Shaw was correct and if we lived to be several hundred years old, we would finally work it all out. I am deeply grateful. With my poems, I finally won even my mother. The longest wooing of my life.

Troubles cured you salty as a country ham, smoky to the taste, thick-skinned and tender inside.

With my poems, I finally won even my mother. The longest wooing of my life.

Our wedding plans please everybody as if we were fertilizing the earth and creating social luck.

Everything you study, everything you learn, makes you a better writer, because you have more understanding of how things work.

Suspense is one of the ways you persuade a reader to become engaged and stay engaged with your work.

Shared laughter is erotic too.