I am an Aries. Although I do not believe in astrology, I think this is exactly the right sign to have been born under..

one thing about having a baby is that each step of the way you simply cannot imagine loving him any more than you already do, because you are burstin….

This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won'….

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. What I’ve….

...the three things I cannot change are the past, the truth, and you..

There are moments when I am writing when I think that if other people knew how I felt right now, they’d burn me at the stake for feeling so good, so ….

My deepest belief is that to live as if we're dying can set us free. Dying people teach you to pay attention and to forgive and not to sweat the smal….

All parents are an embarrassment to their kids. Often grandparents are the relief. Kids don't have to resist you..

Grace means you're in a different universe from where you had been stuck, when you had absolutely no way to get there on your own..

Toddlers can make you feel as if you have violated some archaic law in their personal Koran and you should die, infidel..

There is ecstasy in paying attention. You can get into a kind of Wordsworthian openness to the world, where you see in everything the essence of holi….

Charles had once remarked that holding onto a resentment was like eating rat poison and waiting for the rat to die..

Get to know your characters as well as you can let there be something at stake, and then let the chips fall where they may..

My parents, and librarians along the way, taught me about the space between words; about the margins, where so many juicy moments of life and spirit ….

You fall so deeply in love with your grandbaby. It's so so so much easier than being a parent, because you really don't have much responsibility. And….

It feels like I'm babysitting in the Twilight Zone. I keep waiting for the parents to show up because we are out of chips and diet cokes..

Expectations are resentments under construction..

It's incredibly touching when someone who seems so hopeless finds a few inches of light to stand in and makes everything work as well as possible. Al….

I can never tell what I'm doing when I'm in the middle of publication because I have no confidence. I have terrible self-esteem, along with boundless….

When faced with a crisis, do three things: breathe, pray and be kind..

...[T]here should be a real sense of your imagination and your memories walking and woolgathering, tramping the hills, romping all over the place. Tr….