Sooner or later, even the sharpest pain became flattened.

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.

Remember, the most common thing about common sense is how uncommon it is.

A chaotic mix of emotions churned inside him. Relief. Anger. Longing. She was the last person in the world he wanted to see. She was the only person in the world he wanted to see.

Don't do stuff that freaks him out, like what you're doing now. Do something that makes him happy.

Self-esteem is reliance on ones power to think.

I take literature as a really serious human activity. It's not just a playful thing. It can be hilarious and wonderful and performative, but I think it's really serious.

I am a believer and a conformist.

In the end, everything is simple.

You have to write a lot of scripts to get any scripts that are worth making.

Tommy Dorsey would walk up to you if you had a tuxedo on and make sure you didn't have on white socks.

It's hard to feel middle-aged, because how can you tell how long you are going to live?