Quotes from Jennifer Coburn

A trip to Paris had sounded so adventurous when I was first talking about it a year earlier. People spoke about the city with dreamy longing, as though Paris possessed a magic that could not be found elsewhere. I'd never heard anyone talk about Paris without sighing. The city was a Promised Land that held appeal for most everyone: artists, lovers, even people who just liked cheese.

To know Paris, Bruno began, pulling on his cigarette, you need to relax, have a glass of wine, and enjoy life.

Visiting Florence was like attending a surprise party every day.

Cradles of the Reich covers a dark period of history, but I hope readers will be heartened by how the connections women forge can carry us through the most harrowing of times and sometimes even drive us to act with heroism we hadn't realized we were capable of.

I am a thousand scattered pieces that no one has bothered to put together.

Fear of dying young isn't an altogether bad thing. Sometimes it makes you try what you might otherwise delay.

My mother owns the Drama Queen bookstore in the theatre district and has the Midas touch when it comes to producing off-Broadway gay theatre. Her most recent success was with the all-male musical Oklahomo! The entire cast was clad in tight leather overalls or fringed chaps.

There was so much I needed to learn about Adam before our wedding. I needed to show him how perfect we could be together. I had to win over his friends and family, possibly convert to Judaism, then get him to propose. I needed a serious action plan. I needed a first date.

You're going to carry around a dog in your purse?" I asked incredulously, wondering if my mother knew this was a long-term commitment, not a new accessory. "Who are you, Paris Hilton?" "Who?

This helped me a lot," he said. What helped who a lot? I wondered as I stood beside the open door. "PFLAG?" Jason asked after I heard the sound of a book dropping on his desk. "Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. I heard you talking to the missus and … my brother was gay.

I silently chuckled at Cindy's characterization

My cousin Richard always says that everyone has two marriages, but the lucky ones get to have them both with the same person.

Jessica reminded us all that it was Jesus who said that if we give a man a fish, we feed him for a day, but if we teach him how to fish, we feed him for a lifetime. Since we are celebrating the birthday of Jesus, we decided to use his little motto for our theme for the upcoming year. This year, I hope you will join the Jennings family as we urge others to "Grab your pole!

Rita switched gears to her favorite topic—sex. Her philosophy: What a mess, but so pleasurable. "Speaking of confessions, tell us, have you and Jack been intimate again?" I cringed. "When I had your cousins, the doctahs told us not to have relations with our husbands for six weeks!" "So we had to call our boyfriends!" Bernice quipped. "You stole my punch line!" Rita exploded.

You know I'm mad about you and you're the most fabulous daughter a mother could want. When you call me Mommy, it pushes my buttons and makes me feel older than I really am. Plus, you're a precocious child. Why don't you call me Anjoli?" We weren't like mother and daughter. It was more like two single women sharing an apartment in Greenwich Village in the seventies. Except I was five.

What I mean is that the people you cast in your life have very little to do with how things turn out.

He scurried off faster than if he'd woken up from a one-night stand with Lindsay Lohan.

Spring is here and love is in the air...or maybe it's the smell of fertilizer being sprinkled on my neighbor's lawn. -The Dog House, March

I felt in Ann Arbor the same way I did in the city—like everything was happening and I was missing it all when I wasn't there. I suppose there are several spots on earth where each one of us feels completely at home. For me, they are Ann Arbor

Anjoli had the look of a deer that was told that if it smiled hard enough, the oncoming truck would stop.

I think you're permanently disqualified from the lucky category after four miscarriages, a virtual divorce, and a face that could scare small children.

One thing I know for certain is that the longer I live and the more I learn, the more I realize that I know very little.

Autumn is the most beautiful time of the year in Ann Arbor because hundreds of different types of trees are filled with crisp orange and yellow leaves.

Of course, as in all religions and cultures, there is contradiction, such as the lavish bagel and lox spreads brought in by Sheppy's. We Jews believe in a lovely catered meal for the grieving family—as long as their asses go numb from sitting on crates. Suffer but eat well!