“One of the greatest titles in the world is parent, and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call mom and dad.”

“Language leads a double life - and so does the novelist. You chat with family and friends, you attend to your correspondence, you consult menus and shopping lists, you observe road signs, and so on. Then you enter your study, where language exists in quite another form - as the stuff of patterned ar”