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.

The failures of other genres to provide an emotional connection with some of their characters and narratives gives memoir a toehold.

It strikes me that whatever advantages there are to being a boy--getting to stay out late and having other people wash your clothes and bring you plates of stuff--get undercut by having to play football.

Most great writers suffer and have no idea how good they are. Most bad writers are very confident. Be willing to be a child and be the Lilliputian in the world of Gulliver, the bat girl in Yankee Stadium. That’s a more fruitful way to be.

Memoir is not an act of history but an act of memory, which is innately corrupt.

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

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