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In an age that is sometimes nowadays frightening or confusing, we feel reassured by the almost parental-like authority of experts who tell us so clearly what it is we can and cannot do.

Being a parent is too complicated and emotional a task for magical techniques and miracle cures.

I've lost both parents in the last two years, so you pick up on that stuff. That's the most terrible thing about being an author - standing there at your mother's funeral, but you don't switch the author off. So your own innermost thoughts are grist for the mill.

Strange about parents. We have such easy access to them and such daunting problems of communication.

It's a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.

Parents are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don't fulfill the promise of their early years.

Parents have to really talk to their children before they leave home.

I'm afraid the parenting advice to come out of developmental psychology is very boring: pay attention to your kids and love them.

I was a big and un-ironic fan of Dear Abby when I was a kid in Chicago. I think I sort of internalized her. So I have this inner Abby: cranky, proper, folksy yet scathing, with a beehive hairdo. But that's my issue.

We go into parenting, and we discover that we don't have the answers. We are at a loss.