Up against another human being one's own procedures take on definition

I do think I have an ability to record sensual and emotional facts and factoids, to construct a convincing surface of what life feels like, both physical life and emotional life.

When I began to be published, people got the idea that I should 'teach writing,' which I have no idea how to do and don't really believe in.

You can get used to eating breakfast with a man in a fedora. You can get used to anything, my mother was in the habit of saying.

Madness and witchery as well as bestiality are conditions commonly associated with the use of the female voice in public.

There is no person without a world.

I don't know that we really think any thoughts; we think connections between thoughts. That's where the mind moves, that's what's new, and the thoughts themselves have probably been there in my head or lots of other people's heads for a long time.