I love planting. I love digging holes, putting plants in, tapping them in. And I love weeding, but I don't like tidying up the garden afterwards.

The garden has taught me to live, to appreciate the times when things are fallow and when they're not.

I like cooking, but I think someone else ought to do the dishes.

Children like their mothers especially to be standing still and watching them, even if they are sleeping. At least that's how I felt. There's nothing wrong with the self-interest of children; it's just the way they are.

When I write nonfiction, it's always absolutely true. There will be no moment in my nonfiction where I have made something up and have to apologize to the bullying hostess of a talk show.

I like melancholy. I like to pretend that I'm alone in the world and I'm just sort of abandoned.