At times it is strangely sedative to know the extent of your own powerlessness.

Nothing you write is ever lost to you. At some other level your mind is working on it.

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.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.

Motherhood cannot finally be delegated. Breast-feeding may succumb to the bottle; cuddling, fondling, and paediatric visits may also be done by fathers...but when a child needs a mother to talk to, nobody else but a mother will do.

Isn't it our job to be appalled by our parents? Isn't it every generation's duty to be dismayed by the previous generation? And to assert that we are different - only to discover later that we are distressingly the same?

Creativity demands nothing less than all you have. Talent alone is never enough.