For as spiritual as some people think my books are, I've never really dealt with religious things.

I also believe that parents, if they love you, will hold you up safely, above their swirling waters, and sometimes that means you'll never know what they endured, and you may treat them unkindly, in a way you otherwise wouldn't.

I made the wrong choice ," I whispered. My mother shook her head. "A child should never have to choose.

You can know the whole world and still feel lost in it.

But a desperate heart will seduce the mind.

The truth is, once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.

There is no experience like having children.’ That’s all. There is no substitute for it. You cannot do it with a friend. You cannot do it with a lover. If you want the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn how to love and bond in the deepest way, then you should have children.