The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.

Life's got to be lived, no matter how long or short. You got to take what comes.

my mother always found me out. Always. She's been dead for thirty-five years, but I have this feeling that even now she's watching.

Right after graduation, I married Samuel Fisher Babbitt, an academic administrator. I spent the next ten years in Connecticut, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., raising our children, Christopher, Tom, and Lucy.

The only thing I would want to say is that storytelling is ancient; it's something that everybody does. Kids mustn't be in awe of it. Reading should be a joy - fun, fun, fun - not a responsibility, not something you do because society demands it, but something you do because it's a pleasure.

Don't fear death, fear the un-lived life

Nothing seems interesting when it belongs to you, only when it doesn't.