My mother had died when I wrote my first book. I was twenty-seven, so it was right at the beginning of my writing life. I don't know if she had lived, if I would have done it, certainly not quite like I did. But, you can't rethink it. You wrote what you wrote, it meant something to other people, and that's your good.
Anne RoipheI've told the same story twelve different ways, but I think that's just part of what writers do. Once may not be enough.
Anne RoipheIt is hard to hold on to friendships when people move away to another state or to another world.
Anne RoipheYou 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.
Anne Roiphe