The good part of aging is that you read more and more. You discover poets you never heard of when you were younger.

I have also benefited from teaching; as I try to explain my views to students with critical and open minds, I find myself continually being challenged to go back and rethink ideas. I now see teaching and research as complementary, mutually reinforcing activities.

Science is about curiosity-driven learning, and unless you are curious, you will never find science exciting.

Pretty good, I think. I didn’t mind studying. Obviously math and the physical science subjects interested me more than some of the more artistic subjects, but I think I was a pretty good student. Obviously the teacher thought so.

As a writer, the only thing that you can guarantee yourself pleasure and challenge from is inside your own writing process.

I act like a hopeful person, but I think that hope is based on having zero expectations.

the natural tendency to solidify a narrative that makes you look good

if there is anyone who’s telling you, “Here’s what you should do,” they are somehow lying to you

It’s a gift to let yourself be changed by a person, and for a person to allow you to change them.

It used to be dosing people out of my purse at parties. Now it’s leaving the hang at 11 p.m. to get in bed.