I really consider myself a writer, and a writer who is sometimes a social critic. I'm not an ideologue, I don't join a party. I follow along and take notes. Sometimes I throw in my two cents.

Romanticizing the act of writing or any other art is not very helpful to the artist or the art. It's much better if one simply does.

You can be creative and not addictive, or addictive and not creative. Most addicted people do not produce anything of remarkable note.

Many writers do write about their families and their immediate loved ones and love experiences, either as children or as adults. And very often people get offended by it.

We also have to make sure our children know the history of women. Tell them the rotten truth: It wasn't always possible for women to become doctors or managers or insurance people. Let them be armed with a true picture of the way we want it to be.

I know that family life in America is a minefield, an economic trap for women, a study in disappointment for both sexes.

You really can't say things that upset someone in print and expect them to be nice and leave you their money. That's just not reasonable.