Only the really young are fearless, have the optimism, the romanticism to take unimaginable risks.

The amazing thing about becoming a parent is that you will never again be your own first priority. The gift of motherhood is the selflessness that it introduces you to, and I think that's really freeing... I think it allows you to put yourself in other people's shoes...the empathy that it slugs you with, being a mother. And I think it makes you a better storyteller.

In the next election, can we vote to ban those ribbon things that kind of keep clothing on hangers but really just hang out of your armpits?

My parents said marrying was an optimistic thing to do in pessimistic times.

Once I took a bus from my home in Maryland to Philadelphia to live on the streets with some musicians for a few weeks, and then my parents sent me to boarding school at Andover to shape me up.

Writers get to know me very well. It always serves me in the end because I feel I have a deeper understanding of the character and sometimes they really like my ideas and they use them.

I shaved the back of my head once and did the asymmetrical hair.