To this day my mom's unsinkable spirit is an inspiration to me. For nearly thirty years she's worked at the Library of Congress. Everyone knows Sameha simply as 'Sami.' Along with 500 miles of shelved books her closest friendships are cataloged in that library. They are as much the value of work to my mom as is the work itself.

What makes a woman beautiful is her loyalty to and her friendships with other women and her honesty with men.

So I really did stop and change what I saw I was about and really try to put that principle into play as the center of everything - my friendships my marriage my career my family my way of being in the world. And that changed everything for me.

A man's friendships are like his will invalidated by marriage - but they are also no less invalidated by the marriage of his friends.

Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence.

My first experiences of academic friendship made me smile in after years when I looked back on them. But my circle of acquaintances had gradually grown so large that it was only natural new friendships should grow out of it.

Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.

I thought the more famous I became the more friendships I would have but the opposite was true.

Family and friends and faith are the most important things in your life and you should be building friendships.

Mary Tyler Moore was a working woman whose story lines were not always about dating and men. They were about work friendships and relationships which is what I feel my adult life has mostly been about.