When my mother was sick, I found myself needing to put down in my journals all sorts of things - to try to understand them, and, I think, to try to remember them.

There is always tension in women's gymnastics between athleticism, grace, performance, and eros.

One of the things about grief is that it can bring a deeper perspective into your life; in the end, it has, for me, though it's also brought sorrow.

Nothing prepared me for the loss of my mother. Even knowing that she would die did not prepare me.

I am the indoctrinated child of two lapsed Irish Catholics. Which is to say: I am not religious.

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

I'm not much like my mother; that role falls to my brothers, who have more of her blithe and freewheeling spirit.