I didn't know what kind of jobs, because how was I prepared? At best, I would be an AB in English.

It's hard to tell whether the ship or airplane - they're all the same, I'm convinced - is male or female; it may shift back and forth.

My father's parents were Irish. Only a year before my father died, he and I went back to Ireland for a week to look at the old homestead.

I was not typical. Whatever typical or normal is, I was somehow separated and different.

You write your life story by the choices you make. You never know if they have been a mistake. Those moments of decision are so difficult.

I believe that if you don't derive a deep sense of purpose from what you do, if you don't come radiantly alive several times a day, if you don't feel deeply grateful at the tremendous good fortune that has been bestowed on you, then you are wasting your life. And life is too short to waste.

I usually feel like the role comes to you to sort of illuminate some piece of where you are in your life. I feel like I myself am a single woman and I'm childless - by choice - at this point, and I don't know what will happen.

I've tested life and I've learned what works for me.