And she thought what a clean, simple life she would have led if it weren't for love.

Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!

I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.

But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.

It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.

It is not how much you love someone, but who you are when you are with him.

The Amateur Marriage grew out of the reflection that of all the opportunities to show differences in character, surely an unhappy marriage must be the richest.

It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice.

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.

People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.

The hardest novel to write was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

Don't be afraid, just play the music.

Personal discipline is a most powerful character quality and one worthy of dedicating your life to nurturing.

When within yourself you find the road, the right road will open.

Twitter, to me, works if you're funny. Twitter doesn't work as a promotional tool unless you do it very, very, very occasionally.

In the service of the people we followed such a policy that socialism would not lose its human face.

The more a daughter knows the details of her mother's life [...] the stronger the daughter.

I make up different names for my cat all the time - Flapjack, Bowtie, Popcorn. But he's really, "Hey you, cat."

I don't want to be a passenger sitting on the bench not doing much, even in my older years.

I am a passionate lover of the snapshot, because of all photographic images it comes closest to truth.

There are no limits on how much the heart can love, the mind can imagine, or the human being can achieve.