Living in a small town anywhere means preserving one's self behind a mask.

For the last third of life there remains only work. It alone is always stimulating, rejuvenating, exciting and satisfying.

There is a whole generation of women and it was as if their lives came to a stop when they had children. Most of them got pretty neurotic - because, I think, of the contrast between what they were taught at school they were capable of being and what actually happened to them.

Writers, and particularly female writers, have to fight for the conditions they need to work.

When old settlers say 'One has to understand the country,' what they mean is, 'You have to get used to our ideas about the native.' They are saying in effect, 'Learn our ideas, or otherwise get out; we don't want you.'

Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.

The Freudians describe the conscious as a small lit area, all white, and the unconscious as a great dark marsh full of monsters. In their view, the monsters reach up, grab you by the ankles, and try to drag you down.