...he thought of dying as a kind of adventure, something new that he hadn't yet experienced. Like an unusual vacation trip.

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.

I beg your pardon I am drunk without a drink. English wine & words are vulnerable to every man.

Small children can be startled by the most mundane of noises. A car door from a distance can sound like the sky falling down when heard for the very first time.

It was hard to know how to play the game when the rules kept changing.

Change is threatening to the status quo.

Look, the job of life is to turn your negatives into positives

I’m beginning to understand myself. But it would have been great to be able to understand myself when I was 20 rather than when I was 82.

I do find myself drawn more to pieces that I feel are wrestling with the way that we're living now, what we're all going through.

Life death all does end and each day dies with sleep.

For an economy to prosper, trust between the states must be established, and their individual strengths be appreciated.

I am sharing my faith with my sons. I pray, meditate and read devotionally. But let me be clear: I am a "person of faith" not because I am a saint, but because I am a sinner.