"It's easier being a grandparent because you're at a distance. You're also older, and you haven't given birth, so you're less exhausted. And they leave."
-Anne Lamott, author of the influential bestseller "Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year," who has just published a sequel called "Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son."

"The ubiquity of such behavior suggests that kindness is not a losing life strategy."
-Jonah Lehrer, writing in the New Yorker about vampire bats, Charles Darwin, and the genetics of altruism.

"Like most teachers I know, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I have to be. Dozens and dozens of teenagers scrutinize my language, clothing and posture all day long, all week long."
-William Johnson, a high school teacher in the Bronx.

"Life is too short and we cannot spoil it. I don't have 300 years in front of me. So I just do the things that I really want to do at the moment because that's the only way you will do them well."
-Author and film director Marjane Satrapi.