Biography
"Good art is art that allows you to enter it from a variety of angles and to emerge with a variety of views."
"Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere."
"Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. ... [T]rust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine."
"Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with those who are reckless with yours."
"Don't waste time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself."
"Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young."
"Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either of them might run out."
"Like many women my age, I am 28 years old."
"Like many women my age, I am 28 years old."
"I couldn't have foreseen all the good things that have followed my mother's death. The renewed energy, the surprising sweetness of grief. The tenderness I feel for strangers on walkers. The deeper love I have for my siblings and friends. The desire to play the mandolin. The gift of a visitation."
"Here's a thing about the death of your mother, or anyone else you love: You can't anticipate how you'll feel afterward. People will tell you a few may be close to right, none exactly right."
"A line from one of my 1997 columns - 'Do one thing every day that scares you' - is now widely attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, though I have yet to see any evidence that she ever said it and I don't believe she did. She said some things about fear, but not that thing."
"For some Chicago expats, food is the medicine that blunts the pain of separation."
"Don't waste time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind."
"The movies we love and admire are to some extent a function of who we are when we see them."
"You can map your life through your favorite movies, and no two people's maps will be the same."
"You can figure out who you were by which movies you loved when."
"Don't waste time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind."
"Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you'll have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either of them might run out."
"Like many women my age, I am 28 years old."