Turning fifty ... is like flying: hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

We find our calling or it finds us, and it's a sin against the fates not to use your talent when you have it.

The only difference between men and women is that women are able to create new little human beings in their bodies while simultaneously writing books, driving tractors, working in offices, planting crops - in general, doing everything men do.

[Henry Miller] was such a scribomaniac that even when he lived in the same house as Lawrence Durrell they often exchanged letters. For most of his life, Henry wrote literally dozens of letters a day to people he could have easily engaged in conversation - and did. The writing process, in short, was essential. As it is to all real writers, writing was life and breath to him. He put out words as a tree puts out leaves.

Pleasure is terrifying because it breaks down the boundaries between people. Embracing passion means living with fear.

Love is everything it's cracked up to be. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.

If sex and creativity are often seen by dictators as subversive activities, it's because they lead to the knowledge that you own your own body (and with it your own voice), and that's the most revolutionary insight of all.