I get so lonely sometimes, I could put a box on my head and mail myself to a stranger.

Sure the world breeds monsters, but kindness grows just as wild.

Be willing to be a child and be the Lilliputian in the world of Gulliver.

I kept the fingers of my left hand crossed all the time, while on my right-hand fingers I counted anything at all—steps to the refrigerator, seconds on the clock, words in a sentence—to keep my head occupied. The counting felt like something to hang on to, as if finding the right numbers might somehow crack the code on whatever system ran the slippery universe we were moving through.

I was 40 years old before I became an overnight success, and I'd been publishing for 20 years.

We are in the grip of some big machine grinding us along. The force of it simplifies everything. A weird calm settled over me from inside out. What is about to happen has stood in line to happen. All the roads out of that instant have been closed, one by one.

Having a great dad probably permitted me to pal around with guys in a way that some women don't.