You take [mammary] cells, you put them in a dish, and within three days ... they don't make milk. They completely forget.

Don't be arrogant, because arrogance kills curiosity and passion.

Context overrides. In different contexts, cells do different things.

Be patient and keep faith. It will all fall into place.

I believe the choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself.

The hallmark of a decision in line with one’s inner development is a feeling of having laid down a burden and picked up a more natural responsibility.

I wanted to be an English teacher. I wanted to do it for the corduroy jackets with patches on the side.

Whoever designed this frigging map was having a laugh. Just around the corner, my arse.

The Sisters were Southern Baptist, and they went to church on Saturdays and Sundays, and most other days, too.

In this [fashion] business you're living in the future a lot of the time.

In my stories, whenever there's somebody wonderful and charming and bright and intelligent, that's me!

We're all a nation that believes we're children of the same god.

Writers are the custodians of memory, and that's what this chapter is about: how to leave some kind of record of your life and of the family you were born into.