If dysfunction means that a family doesn't work, then every family ambles into some arena in which that happens, where relationships get strained or even break down entirely. We fail each other or disappoint each other. That goes for parents, siblings, kids, marriage partners - the whole enchilada.

A dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in it.

I do have a really good memory. I mean, like, I can remember all the phone numbers of everybody on the street I grew up on.

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

The words and sentences you take into your body from books are no less sacred and healing than communion. Surely at least one such person lives in your zip code.

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

Poetry is for me Eucharistic. You take someone else's suffering into your body, their passion comes into your body, and in doing that you commune, you take communion, you make a community with others.