KATHERINE CENTER

It's fun to think about plants not just as decorations but as functioning parts of our yard's ecosystem that attract wildlife to the garden. We have hummingbirds, tons of bees, and many monarch butterflies. The kids love it! Though we're very laissez-faire with the garden and never put chemicals on it or even water it much!

I have an affection for tangible objects, like books and pages, but people sure do seem to love their Kindles! We're definitely in the middle of a revolution that will determine how people find, read, and experience stories.

I felt like I had never really heard of a story that reflected the stuff I was going through as a mom. I came up with an idea for a story about motherhood that I would want to read.

We are big composters. We compost everything - bread, tea bags, coffee grounds. I even dump out my old coffee in the garden. We keep a mixing bowl on the counter and just fill it up as the day goes along, then dump it in the mulch pile before dinner and wash it with the dinner dishes.

I'd love to paint our roof white - it's so hot down here in Texas! - and I'd love to have a rainwater collection system to save rain runoff for later. I also love to fantasize about keeping chickens in the backyard.

There is no tenderness without bravery.

Be brave with your life, so others will be brave with theirs.

My goal is to try to be as happy as I can - going through every day just as it is.

The eyes see everything through the heart.

We build our lives in moments, and even the ones we can't remember become the story of who we are.

Our lives disappear, even as we live them.

I believe women are too hard on themselves. I believe that when you love someone, she becomes beautiful to you. I believe the eyes see everything through the heart. Nothing in the world feels as good as resting them on someone you love.

What matters most is how you respond to your heartbreaks and your disappointments and your fears. What matters most is who you become in response to them.

The best things about womanhood might possibly even be the conversations. The chatting. The gabbing. The whispering. The hands-on-hips eye-rolling. The yukking-it up.

And despite everything I know now, I still believe, as I did when I was little, that there is an entire universe of things that my mother knows that I don't. I still believe that nothing truly bad can ever happen if my mother is around. I know it's not true. But still. It is true.

We are only as great as our struggles. We only become who we are in the face of them.

Nothing that doesn’t push you past your limits can change your life. It’s true of work, it’s true of parenting, and it’s true — a hundred times over — of love.

It's always better to have what you have than to get what you wanted.

You are writing the story of your only life every single minute of every day.

Success is doing the right thing for who you are.

Something good was happening. My life was rising from the ashes, and the sight of it left me feeling something like hopeful.

It's more important to be interesting, to be vivid, and to be adventurous than to sit pretty for pictures.

We all carry our mothers inside us.

I guess that's the upside of not being young anymore... You know from experience that the struggle always leads, in some way, to something better.

You don't have to be perfect to be awesome.