Motherhood is like Albania- you can't trust the descriptions in the books, you have to go there.

Why are we, the most medicalized of societies, a culture in pain?

Housework hassles go on, are never resolved, and will probably extend into the afterlife ('Why am I the one who takes the clouds to the dry cleaners?').

This is a truism of child-raising, of course - whatever you give special time and attention to cooking, your children will despise and reject, with annoying gagging sounds.

I could still remember how having a two day old baby makes you feel faintly sorry for everyone else, stuck in their wan unmiraculous lives.

Well, delusions are a wonderful thing, and they keep you company, too.

Hasn't anyone thought to look at outcomes as a logical way to figure out what really works? Not until recently. That tells you how far out of the picture the patient has been.

At a certain point, the soul exits from a cherished photograph, because we have come to the end of our loving projection into that moment.

The first axiom of the family vacation is that someone, possibly everyone, will get sick.

Like an animal, cancer sleeps, prowls, hibernates, turns surly or placid.

Home alone with a wakeful newborn, I could shower so quickly that the mirror didn't fog and the backs of my knees stayed dry. The one-minute hair conditioner was too slow for me.

When ours are interrupted, his are not. His plans are proceeding exactly as scheduled, moving us always (including those minutes or hours or years which seem most useless or wasted or unendurable).

Honey will wipe the floor with you." His eyes went half-mast, and his voice dropped in evident pleasure. "I know.

You don't walk away if you love someone. You help the person.

If someone lies, well, you had a choice to trust that person or not. I think the way my father raised me, well, he trusted everybody. And that worked for him.

Government is at best a petulant servant and at worst a tyrannical master.

It is in knowledge that man has found his greatness and his happiness.

"I criticize America because I love her. I want her to stand as a moral example to the world."

Just as the heart becomes carefree in a place of green, growing plants, goodwill and kindness are born when our souls enter happiness.

In Hollywood, women hate each other.

I may be French, but I'm playing for Arsenal.