Having stopped expecting truth, we rarely get it.

Birth is the start of loneliness and loneliness the start of poetry.

Betrayal betrays the betrayer.

We all parent the best we can. Being human, we're ambivalent. We want perfection for our babies, but we also need sleep.

Mediocre prose might be read as an escape, might be spoken on television by actors, or mouthed in movies. But mediocre poetry did not exist at all. If poetry wasn't good, it wasn't poetry. It was that simple.

Women in America read 'lifestyle' pages which are really glorifications of shopping. They teach us we must veil ourselves in make-up to be loved. And we willingly take the veil, thinking ourselves freed by it. Make-up is no more optional for us than the veil is for Arab women: it is our Western version of the chador.

Love is everything it's cracked up to be