It would take a hell of a man to replace no man at all. - Anna Quindlen

The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. … I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

It’s great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.

Don't ever forget the words on a postcard that my father sent me last year: "If you win the rat race, you're still a rat.