You don't have a good story until something deviates from the expected, " says McAdams. "And raising children leads to some pretty unexpected happenings.

The author observes the shift now that children are not a source of labor for the family, that they have gone from employees of the parents to the bosses of the parents.

Even when our children are still young and defenseless, we feel intimations of their departure. We find ourselves staring at them with nostalgia, wistful for the person they're about to no longer be.

What makes a mother? Looking at your child and identifying emotion

Vocabulary for aggravation is large. Vocabulary for transcendence is elusive.

The 20th century, the author observes, fostered the idea that fulfillment is possible on Earth.

The phrase "having it all" has little to do with having what we want.

Your children are going through life with their eyes closed, so YOU'RE the one who has to steer.

Children live life as a controlled experiment.

Couples with children may argue more, the author suggests, because children are a reminder of just how crucial our choices are.

You have to really dive deep back into yourself and get rid of so much modern analytical categorization. It's one of the great things poetry does.

I'm like a fireman. When I go out on a call, I want to put out a big fire, I don't want to put out a fire in a dumpster.

To be closed from everything, and yet to feel, to think...This is the truth of hell, stripped of its gaudy medievalisms. This loss of contact.

I wanted to know that he would be okay if I died. I wanted to not be a grenade, to not be a malevolent force in the lives of people I loved.

You are not in business to be popular.

I think for one, we have to really accept that anger is a normal human emotion that can be a positive force for change.

A true friend is someone who never gets tired listening to your pointless drama over and over again.

One day we're going to watch people fight to the death, like Roman times. Instead of being in a coliseum, we're going to watch it on TV.

Start the day with love, spend the day with love, fill the day with love and end the day with love. That is the way to God.

There is no society for the prevention of cruelty to women.