It turned out to be impossible for me to 'run away' in the sense other American teenagers did. Any movement at all was taken for progress in my family.

How much smaller the large places are once we're grown up, when we have car keys and credit cards.

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

I'm not nearly smart enough or imaginative enough to tackle the novel form. Never happen.

Every now and then we enter the presence of the numinous and deduce for an instant how we're formed, in what detail the force that infuses every petal might specifically run through us, wishing only to lure us into our full potential.

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

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