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.

Decay is quiet but ghastly, explosion is dramatic and dreadful. There's not much to choose between the two of them in reality, and most of our lives have sufficient of both.

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.

I am not a perfect friend, and it is impossible not to rebuff or be rebuffed if you move about the world.

I believe that it is our human right to be parents and women. And there's no contradiction between feminism, which means women should have all that they are entitled to, all that they can do, all the opportunities that they can take advantage of they should have.

Is it possible that my sons-in-law will do toilets? If we raise boys to know that diapers need to be changed and refrigerators need to be cleaned, there's hope for the next generation.

You have to be a lover of books without expecting more of them than they give - a little pleasure, a little insight, a moment of escape, a deepening of your own humanity. Not much else.