I had no place in any coterie, or in any reciprocal self-advertising. I stood alone. I stood outside. I wanted only to learn. I wanted only to write better.

for my own purpose, I defined the art of fiction as experience illuminated.

I was always a feminist, for I liked intellectual revolt as much as I disliked physical violence. On the whole, I think women havelost something precious, but have gained, immeasurably, by the passing of the old order.

Nothing in life is so hard that you can't make it easier by the way you take it.

The hardest thing to believe when you're young is that people will fight to stay in a rut, but not to get out of one.

Most women want their youth back again; but I wouldn't have mine back at any price. The worst years of my life are behind me, and my best ones ahead.

He knows so little and knows it so fluently.