“A good home must be made, not bought. In the end, it's not track lighting or a sun room that brings light into a kitchen.”

“A person who deserves my loyalty receives it.”

“Although Salinger had long since cut me out of his life completely and made it plain that he had nothing but contempt for me, the thought of becoming the object of his wrath was more than I felt ready to take on.”

“At Home in the World is the story of a young woman, raised in some difficult circumstances, and how she survives. It tells a story of redemption, not victimhood.”

“Growing up in the fifties and sixties, I can only remember knowing one child, ever, whose parents got a divorce, and hardly any whose mother 'worked' at anything besides raising her children.”

“I believed my story would be helpful to young women my daughter's age, who are still in the process of forming themselves as women, and in need of encouragement to remain true to themselves.”

“I continued to protect him with my silence.”

“I do not outline. There are writers I know and count as my friends who certainly do it the other way, but for me, part of the adventure is not knowing how it's going to turn out.”

“I think of myself as a realistic writer, not a creator of soap opera or melodrama.”

“I was giving a speech one time, and the woman who introduced me said, 'Well, she used to be J. D. Salinger's girlfriend. I thought, 'God, is that all I've been?' I didn't want to be reduced to that.”

“I wonder what it is that the people who criticize me for telling this story truly object to: is it that I have dared to tell the story? Or that the story turns out not to be the one they wanted to hear?”

“If I told you about all the stories I don't tell, I would be violating the very boundaries I set for myself.”

“It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.”

“Long after Salinger sent me away, I continued to believe his standards and expectations were the best ones.”

“Many women my age have known the experience of giving up crucial parts of themselves to please the man they love.”

“Teach a child to play solitaire, and she'll be able to entertain herself when there's no one around. Teach her tennis, and she'll know what to do when she's on a court. But raise her to feel comfortable in nature, and the whole planet is her home.”

“The big dramas that fascinate me are the quiet ones that happen behind closed doors in so-called ordinary families.”

“The painter who feels obligated to depict his subjects as uniformly beautiful or handsome and without flaws will fall short of making art.”

“The portrait of my parents is a complicated one, but lovingly drawn.”

“The silence was part of the story I wanted to tell.”

“There is a theme that runs through my work, and that is: the toxic property of keeping secrets.”

“Those who rhapsodize about the ease and joy of childhood have perhaps forgotten what it's like to be 12 years old.”

“To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.”

“When people ask what I write about, that's what I tell them: 'The drama of human relationships.' I'm not even close to running out of material.”

“Women writers have been told, forever, that our stories were not valuable. Not as valuable as men's stories about wars, business, power.”

“You write about what you know, and you write about what you want to know.”