I take the kids to church and Sunday school. They love it. I really think it's important for a child to feel that there are things that are bigger than your life out there.

People seem to really enjoy laughing at me.

I'm just trying to matter and live a good life and make work that means something to somebody.

I get crazy in a bookstore. It makes my heart beat hard because I want to buy everything.

Growing up in the South, it was very patriarchal. When I applied to Stanford, I was told by a [male] college counselor, "You're never gonna get in, don't bother. They don't want you." I said, "I'm going to try." And I got in! But I wouldn't be the woman I am if I hadn't had that conflict to overcome. It has given me an underdog feeling all my life.

Well I always wanted to be Dolly Parton when I was a little girl. I was obsessed with her.

I'd always ask my grandma, who was so, so smart, why she didn't work, and she would explain that her parents didn't approve of her working after she had children. She didn't feel like she had choices.