It takes a spasm of love to write a poem.

I do believe that in every age there are people whose consciousness transcends their own time and that these people, whether fictional or historical, are those with whom we most closely identify and those about whom we most enjoy reading.

Generations of women have sacrificed their lives to become their mothers. But we do not have that luxury any more. The world has changed too much to let us have the lives our mothers had. And we can no longer afford the guilt we feel at not being our mothers. We cannot afford any guilt that pulls us back to the past. We have to grow up, whether we want to or not. We have to stop blaming men and mothers and seize every second of our lives with passion. We can no longer afford to waste our creativity. We cannot afford spiritual laziness.

If there's anything the world disdains more than uppity young women, it's uppity old women. Dying young has always been a woman's best career move.

perfectionism is the enemy of art. Since art is essentially divine play, not dogged work, it often happens that as one becomes more professionally driven one also becomes less capriciously playful.

I think we’re [men and women] more similar. In that we all deal with our fantasy lives and sometimes are disappointed by reality.

It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.