Ancient history is oddly short on incorrect omens.

parenting is an exercise in unintended consequences.

As always, an educated woman was a dangerous woman.

A rich, multi-dimensional tour of Naples, most brilliant, battered, and bewildering of cities, here fixed to the page with wit and élan. Splendid.

I'm a sucker for lost worlds. I was nostalgic even as a child. I was happiest in my hometown library in Adams, Mass., where nothing seemed to change.

When a woman teams up with a snake a moral storm threatens somewhere.

And in the absence of facts, myth rushes in, the kudzu of history.

An interesting thing about book groups, it seems to me, is that there is no correlation between a brilliant book and a brilliant discussion. The first seems sometimes even to undermine the second.

Motherhood is always an act of courage.

My next book is on the Salem witch trials. As a small-town Massachusetts girl, this makes me very happy. So does the reunion with documents!

No one in the modern world controls the wealth or territory that Cleopatra did.

Women rely on friends. ... That's where we draw sustenance and find safety. We can count on our women friends when we need a good laugh or a good cry.

What's the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning? Wish I hadn't.

It is your birthright to have a life of meaning and purpose. Whether or not the people in your life have consistently celebrated your incarnation, you deserve to celebrate your existence.

An ambassador has no need of spies; his character is always sacred.

Contentment gives a crown, where fortune hath denied it.

As an actor, if you want to while shooting, you can run back to your trailer and take a nap. But you cannot do that while directing.

Wedlock is the deep, deep peace of the double bed after the hurly-burly of the chaise lounge.

I went into the army worth a million and a half dollars, and came out a beggar.

Have McNab take the edge if you need one. Can he handle bad cop?" "He does it really well during personal role-playing games when I'm the reluctant witness.

The strategy behind the Kyoto Protocol has no grounding in economics or environmental policy.