But the most precious research to me came from the paperwork filed on behalf of my grandparents and great-grandfather. The ship’s manifest showed that they could read and write. I am still emotional when I look at those boxes checked yes.
Sometimes we get our hearts broken, only to have the right person come along to mend them.
Two different things. Work is survival, and love sustains you. You have work anytime. But love? Not always.
I have been a joy to live with all spring: Upbeat, warm and tender, uncomplicated, and loving. I am no trouble at all. You could press me into dough and make sugar cookies out of me, I’ve been so sweet.
And when you clear away the cobwebs of the description of every job in the world, at the bottom of that job is service. It’s service. And I took that ethic and applied it to my writing craft.
My mother was an avid readerShe loved books about romance. Books that took place in faraway places and times. Stories with costumes.
I will probably always cry myself to sleep, but knowing this, someday the tears won’t be sad, or filled with regret. Maybe they will be joyful.
Having a purpose is the little secret of the nonpretties. Something to do always beats something to look at.
Mama always said a good family has one heartbeat. No one knows you like the people you live with, and no one will take up your cause to the outside world quite like your blood relatives.
Everything has to be clean and orderly when I sit down to write. I have candles going, and small objects that remind me of what I am working on, or bring me into the world of the character.
But a child’s joy is doubled for the mother, and the sound of her son’s laughter began to her heart, a feat she had never believed possible.
Looking back, now, I realize that you only ever need one person who lights up that way when you enter a room. One person is all it takes to give a kid confidence.
Love has a funny way of showing up when you aren’t looking for it and didn’t plan on it.
Food was celebration, conversation, and nourishment. The table is where the big decisions of the family are made and all the arguing takes place.
I look at my roommates who are so proud of me that it makes me proud.
When people are filled to the brim with love, they are their most beautiful.
There’s nothing an artist needs more – even more than excellent tools and stamina – than a deadline.
I love rhinestones, faux jewelry.
Food is so important – it sustains us, it provides a social focal point, and it is fun. I cannot unravel the difference between love in my family and the preparation of food because they are so closely woven.
I have held the following jobs: office temp, ticket seller in movie theatre, cook in restaurant, nanny, and phone installer at the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
If a man walks in beauty, he will create, and when he creates, he prospers.