Like Most Of The Educated, I Do

I Wrote The Dickens Book Because I Loved Dickens, Not Because I Felt A Kinship With Him, But After Writing The Book It Seemed To Me That There Was At Least One Similarity Between Us And That Was That Dickens Loved To Write And Wrote With The Ease And Conviction Of Breathing. Me, Too.

When I Went To First Grade And The Other Children Said That Their Fathers Were Farmers, I Simply Didn't Believe Them. I Agreed In Order To Be Polite, But In My Heart I Knew That Those Men Were Impostors, As Farmers And As Fathers, Too. In My Youthful Estimation, Laurence Cook Defined Both Categories. To Really Believe That Others Even Existed In Either Category Was To Break The First Commandment.

I Say, When Your Hair Turns Gray And Your Children Think They Know Who You Are, Do The Thing That Shakes Up Who You Think You Are, Even Who You Had Prided Yourself On Being. When All Those Around You Say They Simply Don't Recognize You Any Longer, That's The Real Compliment.

Fascination With Horses Predated Every Other Single Thing I Knew. Before I Was A Mother, Before I Was A Writer, Before I Knew The Facts Of Life, Before I Was A Schoolgirl, Before I Learned To Read, I Wanted A Horse.

A Reader's Tastes Are Peculiar. Choosing Books To Read Is Like Making Your Way Down A Remote And Winding Path. Your Stops On That Path Are Always Idiosyncratic. One Book Leads To Another And Another The Way One Thought Leads To Another And Another. My Type Of Reader Is The Sort Who Burrows Through The Stacks In The Bookstore Or The Library (or The Web Site — Stacks Are Stacks), Yielding To Impulse And Instinct.