I tell people not to write too soon about their lives. Writing about yourself too young is loaded with psychological complexities.

I don't have a copy of my books, and the degree to which I never read them is profound. I never look.

Ten years, she's dead, and I still find myself some mornings reaching for the phone to call her. She could no more be gone than gravity or the moon.

There are women succeeding beyond their wildest dreams because of their sobriety.

Childhood was terrifying for me. A kid has no control. You’re three feet tall, flat broke, unemployed, and illiterate. Terror snaps you awake. You pay keen attention. People can just pick you up and move you and put you down.

The emotional stakes a memoirist bets with could not be higher, and it's physically enervating. I nap on a daily basis like a cross-country trucker.

I'm doomed to act like myself, even when it's inconvenient!