All human life has its seasons and cycles, and no one's personal chaos can be permanent. Winter, after all, gives way to spring and summer, though sometimes when branches stay dark and the earth cracks with ice, one thinks they will never come, that spring, and that summer, but they do, and always.

You can love somebody without it being like that. You keep them a stranger, a stranger who's a friend.

My yardstick is how somebody treats me.

I never had a rejection slip in my life.

The instant she saw the letter she squinted her eyes and bent her lips in a tough tiny smile that advanced her age immeasurably. "Darling," she instructed me, "would you reach in the drawer there and give me my purse. A girl doesn't read this sort of thing without her lipstick.

would you reach in the drawer there and give me my purse. A girl doesn't read this sort of thing without her lipstick.

I live in Brooklyn. By choice. Those ignorant of its allures are entitled to wonder why.