A man's errors are his portals of discovery.

Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.

In a good literary memoir, you're basically rendering the essence of the experience. Whether someone is called Jane or Susan, who cares?

We are interested in putting on great theater and building a stronger group. Do not let a lack of experience hold you back. We'll teach you. Whether you want to be on stage or behind the scenes, we'd love to have you!

I am made to think, not for the first time, that in my writing I have plunged ahead-head-on, heedlessly one might say-or 'fearlessly'- into my own future: this time of utter raw anguished loss. Though I may have had, since adolescence, a kind of intellectual/literary precocity, I had not experienced much;nor would I experience much until I was well into middle age-the illnesses and deaths of my parents, this unexpected death of my husband. We play at paste till qualified for pearl says Emily Dickinson. Playing at paste is much of our early lives. And then, with the violence of a door slammed shut by wind rushing through a house, life catches up with us.

Reading a book is a very human experience, and Betty engaged in the humanity of putting children and books together.