Writing about food is my default.

What I was learning, on those weekend walks, is how much you can find out about a person merely by watching what he eats. Food became my own private way of looking at the world.

Hope can’t hurt.

I am telling you that if things can change for the worse, the opposite is also true. But only if you open yourself to the possibilities.

That’s what I like so much about libraries, they smell the way we would like to imagine the past.

That’s the most terrible thing about being a child; you’re convinced that it’s all your fault.” Lulu.

I discovered that endings have their own odd thrill. In the mania of the moment, it’s possible to forget what you are losing.

I feel as if there’s a huge gulf separating me from all the lucky people in the world; they have so much to look forward to.

I’d learned an important lesson: When something frightens me, it is definitely worth doing.

But I have always been persuaded that someday, when I grow up, I am destined for great things. And then I wonder when, exactly, I expect that will be.