I am a person who continually destroys the possibilities of a future because of the numbers of alternative viewpoints I can focus on the present.

At last I understood that the way over, or through this dilemma, the unease at writing about 'petty personal problems' was to recognize that nothing is personal, in the sense that it is uniquely one's own. Writing about oneself, one is writing about others, since your problems, pains, pleasures, emotions—and your extraordinary and remarkable ideas—can't be yours alone. [...] Growing up is after all only the understanding that one's unique and incredible experience is what everyone shares.

[On her mother:] I was in nervous flight from her ever since I can remember anything, and from the age of fourteen I set myself obdurately against her in a kind of inner emigration from everything she represented. Girls do have to grow up, but has this battle always been so implacable?

In the writing process, the more a story cooks, the better.

A simple grateful thought turned heavenwards is the most perfect prayer.

My father was always so mingled with rage at his life.

What the feminists want of me is something they haven't examined because it comes from religion. They want me to bear witness.