He talked and talked because he didn't know what to say.

Above all else she mustn't think that using her body will help her attain her goal. Men use women who play seductively, and then they look down on them.

To leave a book is like leaving the better part of oneself.

A writer is first and foremost a witness of her time. She must tell the truth, not take a political position. But then the truth that she discovers is profoundly political.

Characters simply come and find me. They sit down, I offer them a coffee. They tell me their story and then they almost always leave. When a character, after drinking some coffee and briefly telling her story, wants dinner and then a place to sleep and then breakfast and so on, for me the time has come to write the novel.

The waves have the habit of going forward and then flowing back.

The future is created through memory.