Even if you yourself were unhappy and anxious, whenever you glimpsed happiness in your child, you suddenly became happy too.

Both my mother and I have close groups of friends that include other writers, and these friendships are very important to us.

You had only one chance for a signature in life, but most people left no impression.

I have never been much of a researcher

The minute you had kids you closed ranks. You didn't plan this in advance, but it happened. Families were like individual, discrete, moated island nations. The little group of citizens on the slab of rock gathered together instinctively, almost defensively, and everyone who was outside the walls—even if you'd once been best friends—was now just that, outsiders.

It seemed that everywhere you went, people quickly adapted to the way they had to live, and called it Life.

I've been waiting for someone to sign the permission slip for me to write about sex. In the meantime, I've written about sex in all my books anyway.