A person could spend most of a lifetime in retrospective terror, thinking of all the things one nearly didn't do.

there are people who read my work and accuse me of being political! As far as I'm concerned that's like accusing a dog of having a bark!

I'm not pretending to be ingenuous; I know what I'm doing.

Literature is one of the few kinds of writing in the world that does not tell you what to buy, want, see, be, or believe. It's more like conversation, raising new questions and inspiring you to answer them for yourself.

I concentrate on character, theme, language, structure, voice. It actually surprises me that no matter what I write, people declare it "intently political." I'm just writing about the world I know, as it is. Wounds and griefs included.

Our childhood had passed over into history overnight. The transition was unnoticed by anyone but ourselves.

People love to read about sins and errors, but not their own.