The most exciting periods of literature have always been those when the critics were great.

It is quite easy to remark the absurdities and contradictions of a country's social system from outside its borders, but very difficult if one has been brought up in it.

There's always this sense of incredulity that writers feel, because they're usually living flat and ordinary lives, because they have to.

It is my belief that children are full of understanding and know as much as and more than adults, until they are about seven, when they suddenly become stupid, like adults.

My mother died happily of a stroke in her seventies.

What women will say to other women grumbling in their kitchens and complaining and gossiping or what they make clear in their masochism is often the last thing they will say aloud - a man may overhear. Women are the cowards they are because they have been semi-slaves for so long.

All my friends' mothers were appalling women.