How plotless real life was!

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.

I will overcome every obstruction.

Hatred is as easy as slipping on a well-worn woolen cloak. If only it provided the comfort of one.

I just work hard and do things as they come along. But it has been a challenge to learn that I have to say 'no' to things and to know how and what to prioritize.

People who dream of something bigger and better are good role models.

Ten years is a pretty good run for anything.

A garden should be natural-seeming, with wild sections, including a large area of bluebells.

In Congress the majority governs, but the minority rules.

This whole act's immutably decreed. 'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates' lieutenant; I act under orders.

With the way I like to work, I always have to draw [inspiration] from somewhere, and the best place to take from is your own life.

You will not read voice on the page; you will hear it in your head.