I believe in the importance of individuality, but in the midst of grief I also find myself wanting connection - wanting to be reminded that the sadness I feel is not just mine but ours.

Sometimes you don't even know what you want until you find out you can't have it.

My theory is this: Women falter when they're called on to be highly self-conscious about their talents. Not when they're called on to enact them.

After all dying is one of the most profound and difficult experiences we have.

A mother is a story with no beginning. That is what defines her.

I wasn't prepared for the fact that grief is so unpredictable. It wasn't just sadness, and it wasn't linear. Somehow I'd thought that the first days would be the worst and then it would get steadily better - like getting over the flu. That's not how it was.

A mother is beyond any notion of a beginning. That's what makes her a mother.