Women's books are kind of discriminated against. If a man writes a book about his family stories, people think of it as literature. If it's a woman, she's 'spilling her guts,' and it's not art.

I never became a writer for the money. I am a poet first. Even getting published is a miracle for poets.

certain very old people reach an age where every funeral becomes some sort of insane confirmation of strength, rather than of vulnerability, as it is when we are in our thirties or forties and our friends die.

All people believe their suffering is greater than others.

The sexuality doesn't end. It really doesn't. You're sexual your whole life, if you're a sexual person.

Really true intimacy is rare and it depends on other things besides sex.

Plot is just a fancy way of saying 'and then.