And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.

Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.

He reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter of fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there's another dog.

Truly to sing, that is a different breath.

I'm not that big a fan of marriage as an institution and I don't know why women need to have children to be seen as complete human beings.

The roughest make-up I ever wore was for 'Phantom of the Opera' because the phantom's face was all disfigured, and he's trying to pass in public so he can attend his beloved opera. That was make-up over make-up.

I love kids. I think I'm a child at heart.

In 'Shadow Tag,' Erdrich creates scenes from a fictional marriage, that of two American Indians, Irene and her painter husband Gil, that suggest some of the worst psychological torments and stresses of real life.