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If people didn't read books on the subway, underground journeys would be dreary.

If you don't visit the bad neighborhoods, the bad neighborhoods are going to visit you.

It's not a common thing for a Southern white family to go out and seek their black cousins.

I have to be very careful about how often I drag my family to places. They need some stability in their lives.

I grew up on a dirt road in Maine, and pretty much everybody on that dirt road was related to me, and they were old. And so grumpy.

It's funny, in literature no one ever goes to the lavatory.

The sea is the universal sewer.

People's backyards are much more interesting than their front gardens, and houses that back on to railways are public benefactors.

For the first time ever I was taking the family on the road. We stayed with my in-laws, which on life's list of experiences ranks right below sitting in a tub full of scissors.