I've become more conservative about sex as I've gotten older.

A book burrows into your life in a very profound way because the experience of reading is not passive.

I tried to keep myself away from him by using con words like "fidelity" and "adultery", by telling myself that he would interfere with my work, that I had him I'd be too happy to write. I tried to tell myself I was hurting Bennett, hurting myself, making a spectacle of myself. I was. But nothing helped. I was possessed. The minute he walked into a room and smiled at me, I was a goner.

The sexuality doesn't end. It really doesn't. You're sexual your whole life, if you're a sexual person.

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

each of us only feels the torn lining of his own coat and sees the wholeness of the other person's.

I believe that women should live for love, for motherhood and for intellect, and I believe we shouldn't have to choose. And I believe that's always been difficult for women, to express themselves intellectually, maternally, and passionately.