Of course some people manage to write books really young and publish really young. But for most writers, it takes several years because you have to apprentice yourself to the craft, and you also have to grow up. I think maturity is connected to one's ability to write well.

One thing any backpacker will tell you is that it's tedious and monotonous. You're bored sometimes, so you really have to make the fun in your head.

I set my toothbrush down, then leaned into the mirror and stared into my own eyes. I could feel myself disintegrating inside myself like a past-bloom flower in the wind. Every time I moved a muscle, another petal of me blew away. Please, I thought. Please.

Men's stories are seen as universal, women's as particular. What women are up against is the battle to not be marginalized.

Writing is part intuition and part trial and error, but mostly it's very hard work.

He hadn't loved me well in the end, but he'd loved me well when it mattered.

Be about ten times more magnanimous than you believe yourself capable of. Your life will be a hundred times better for it.