Women often get dropped from memory, and then history.

And it does no harm to repeat, as often as you can, 'Without me the literary industry would not exist: the publishers, the agents, the sub-agents, the sub-sub-agents, the accountants, the libel lawyers, the departments of literature, the professors, the theses, the books of criticism, the reviewers, the book pages- all this vast and proliferating edifice is because of this small, patronized, put-down and underpaid person.'

I write because I've always written, can't stop. I am a writing animal. The way a silk worm is a silk-producing animal.

And then, not expecting it, you become middle-aged and anonymous. No one notices you. You achieve a wonderful freedom. It is a positive thing. You can move about unnoticed and invisible.

I hate to sound clichéd, but I do see life as a journey. How else can you see it?

Growing up is, after all, only the understanding that one's unique and incredible experience is what every one shares.

There was a time when young people respected learning and literature and now they don't.