Writers are doubters, compulsives, self-flagellants. The torture only stops for brief moments.

I have lived my life according to this principle: If I'm afraid of it, then I must do it.

I write lustily and humorously. It isn't calculated; it's the way I think. I've invented a writing style that expresses who I am.

The aim of my writing is to utterly remove the distance between author and reader so that the book becomes a sort of semipermeable membrane through which feelings, ideas, nutrients pass.

Solitude is un-American.

Women tend to be preservers of the social structure, of marriage. They don't want to upset their husbands or their significant others. They don't want to hurt people.

If we can be sufficient unto ourselves, we need fear no entangling webs.