It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice.

293

My family can always tell when I'm well into a novel because the meals get very crummy.

218

I remember leaving the hospital - thinking, 'Wait, are they going to let me just walk off with him? I don't know beans about babies! I don't have a license to do this.' [We're] just amateurs.

183

II would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them -- without a though about publication -- and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside.

172

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!

164

While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put.

145

I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.

129

People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.

117

She thinks the people she loves are better than they really are, and so then she starts changing things around to suit her view of them.

113

I've always thought a hotel ought to offer optional small animals. I mean a cat to sleep on your bed at night, or a dog of some kind to act pleased when you come in. You ever notice how a hotel room feels so lifeless?

101

I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get.

80