I'm not in charge of my life.

Divorce isn't such a tragedy. A tragedy's staying in an unhappy marriage, teaching your children the wrong things about love. Nobody ever died of divorce.

I've learned that some broken things stay broken, and I've learned that you can get through bad times and keep looking for better ones, as long as you have people who love you.

Sometimes the worst thing that happens to you, the thing you think you can't survive...it's the thing that makes you better than you used to be.

You should be concerned about the state of your soul, not the state of your bank account.

He loved me. He loved me, but he doesn't love me anymore, and it's not the end of the world.

Everyone has sorrow. Everyone has obligations. Everyone keeps going. You lean on the people who love you. You do the best you can, and you keep going.

People will want you to behave a certain way, to make a certain choice because it reinforces the way they see the world...But you have to do what's right for you.

My feeling about my own work is, I could be writing 'The Aeneid' and they would still have to call it chick lit or mommy lit or menopausal old hag lit.

Head's all empty, I don't care,' he'd sing to me, quoting the Grateful Dead, and I'd force a smile, thinking that my head was never empty and that if it ever was, you could be darn sure I'd care.

Read everything. Read fiction and non-fiction, read hot best sellers and the classics you never got around to in college.

Only men are capable of aesthetic greatness.

God is dead not because He doesn't exist, but because we live, play, procreate, govern, and die as though He doesn't.

My tongue swore, but my mind was still unpledged.

I play a role in front of the cameras, just like in the movies.

Body odour (known also as scent of the immortals) is a disgusting condition with an awful, nauseating smell.

Loving, hating, having expectations: all these are attachments. Attachment prevents the growth of one's true being.

There's no sacrifice in eating well, there is no sacrifice in pleasure. To the contrary, the best-grown food is actually the tastiest.

All land, no matter what has happened to it, has over it a grace, an absolutely persistent beauty.

It seems to me that many writers, by virtue of environments of culture, art and education, slip into writing because of their environments.

If you want a team of smart, creative people to do extraordinary things, don't put them in a drab, ordinary space.