In fiction, I searched for my favorite authors, women I have trusted to reassure me than not all teenage guys are total ditwads, that the archetype of the noble cute hero who devotes himself to the girl he loves has not gone the way of the rotary phone. That all I had to do was be myself (smart, hardworking, funny) and be patient and kind and he and I would find each other. As Bea would say, this why they call it fiction.

The imagination is a wonderful thing; it allows for all manner of undiscoverable sins.

Coeur qui soupire n'a pas ce qu'il desire. The heart that sighs does not have what it desires.

We may not get what we want, when we want. But with a bit of perseverance and a lot of patience, we can get what we need.

A mother is a mother from the moment her baby is first placed in her arms until eternity. It didn't matter if her child were three, thirteen, or thirty.

As my mother says, your forties are when you finally pay for your past mistakes, the cigarettes and sunburns, the Big Macs and smooth-talking men. She may be right.

That's what dessert means to me: a dollop of sweet love in an otherwise cold world.