Anne Roiphe

“When a woman has a baby, she is not only reborn but she is also reminded of her own mother's experience.”

“Every mother is a working mother.”

“A woman's life is a series of negotiations.”

“I did not want to be a tree, a flower or a wave. In a man's world I wanted to be a man.”

“An ordinary life examined closely reveals itself to be exquisite and complicated and exceptional, somehow managing to be both heroic and plain.”

“Marriage is a sort of friendship recognized by the police.”

“I think the personal is the political and the political is the personal.”

“A good mother is one who is selfless, a good father is one who is selfless. The problem is when you have two selfless people in a marriage, you have a vacuum.”

“Memory is the personal journalism of the soul.”

“The family is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living.”

“We are all, in the last analysis, alone.”