The vehemence with which certain critics have chosen not simply to criticize what I've written, but to challenge my writing this story at all, speaks of what the book is about: fear of disapproval.

She felt everything too deeply, it was like the world was too much for her.

It's not only children who grow. Parents do too.

A person who deserves my loyalty receives it.

The big dramas that fascinate me are the quiet ones that happen behind closed doors in so-called ordinary families.

The painter who feels obligated to depict his subjects as uniformly beautiful or handsome and without flaws will fall short of making art.

At Home in the World is the story of a young woman, raised in some difficult circumstances, and how she survives. It tells a story of redemption, not victimhood.

To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.

My job is writing. I get paid to do it. When was the last time you heard someone challenge a doctor for making money off of cancer?

The portrait of my parents is a complicated one, but lovingly drawn.

Those who rhapsodize about the ease and joy of childhood have perhaps forgotten what it's like to be 12 years old.

They're looking for guys like us, he says, young and hungry, not done yet. I say I'm not hungry, Rick, all I am is angry. He says that'll do just fine.

Without a healthy team spirit you won't get anywhere in football.

Our relationship with nature has changed radically, irreversibly, but by no means all for the bad. Our new epoch is laced with invention. Our mistakes are legion, but our talent is immeasurable.

You don't have to be a cheater to sing a cheatin' song, that's what I'm saying.

Those diseases which medicines do not cure, iron cures; those which iron cannot cure, fire cures; and those which fire cannot cure, are to be reckoned wholly incurable.

It is a struggle. But I don't mind. I will just keep fighting on.

Do the dishes while you're cooking.

The journey is difficult, immense. We will travel as far as we can, but we cannot in one lifetime see all that we would like to see or to learn all that we hunger to know.

Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially.

Never trouble another for what you can do yourself