I believe that in a contest between the living and the almost living, the latter must, if necessary, give way to the will of the former.

I've always had a certain facility with words.

When I write a novel, I have what I think of as an icon that helps get me into the world of the book.

In the same way the Brits had to get used to the idea that the sun had set on the British Empire, I think that there's the subrosa feeling that we are at the end of the American century, and I think that's very, very hard for Americans to take.

I know a lot and have written a lot and have thought a lot about motherhood.

Reading is another thing that has made me more human by exposing me to worlds I might never have entered and people I might never meet.

My home was in a pleasant place outside of Philadelphia. But I really lived, truly lived, somewhere else. I lived within the covers of books.