Poetry is fired by love.

The best slave does not need to be beaten. She beats herself.

When I sit down at my writing desk, time seems to vanish. I think it's a wonderful way to spend one's life.

As a reader, I want a book to kidnap me into its world. Its world must make my so-called real world seem flimsy. Its world must lure me to return. When I close the book, I should feel bereft.

I don't necessarily read everything. I read what I need to read to inspire the book I'm trying to finish.

The older we get, the more Jewish we become in my family.

The words carry their own momentum. A confession in motion tends to stay in motion. Newton's first law of jealousy.