The greatest feminists have also been the greatest lovers. I'm thinking not only of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley, but of Anais Nin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and of course Sappho. You cannot divide creative juices from human juices. And as long as juicy women are equated with bad women, we will err on the side of being bad.

Turning fifty ... is like flying: hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

I believe that there's a force of life in the universe, and that when we're writing or making music or painting, we're likely to connect with that flow.

If we ban whatever offends any group in our diverse society, we will soon have no art, no culture, no humor, no satire. Satire is by its nature offensive. So is much art and political discourse. The value of these expressions far outweighs their risk.

Life has no plot. It is by far more interesting than anything you can say about it.

Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

Every time women make tremendous strides, the right wing gets terrified and creates laws making it hard to get an abortion or birth control.