Domesticity has been a challenge for me but painful as it's been, engaging with family has been a school for reducing solipsism and increasing my understanding of people's different reactions to stress.

In the best nonfiction, it seems to me, you're always made aware that you are being engaged with a supple mind at work. The story line or plot in nonfiction consists of the twists and turns of a thought process working itself out.

A personal essay often includes some or a lot of personal confession. That makes the reader feel less lonely in their confusion and darkness.

I like the freedom that comes with lowered expectations.

For most of my life, I have wanted broad impact but now, at 72, I'm not so sure that's always my first priority.

It bothers me when I can't, for example, remember a name. I don't know if it's pre-senility or whether there are too many names packed in our brains.

I am apt to be harsh in my secret judgments of others, seeing them as defective because they are not enough like me.