the body is wiser than its inhabitants. the body is the soul. the body is god’s messenger.

But we should ask the question: Why should a writer be more than a writer? Why should a writer be a guru? Why are we supposed to be psychiatrists? Isn't it enough to write and tell the truth? It's not like telling the truth is common. Writers are the earthworms of society. We aerate the soil. That's enough.

Feminism is teaching. I've gotten a lot of pleasure pushing younger writers that I've met and worked with.

At fifty the madwoman in the attic breaks loose, stomps down the stairs, and sets fire to the house. She won't be imprisoned anymore.

To name oneself is the first act of both the poet and the revolutionary.

But come back in November or December, in February or March, when the fog, la nebbia, settles upon the city like a marvelous monster, and you will have little trouble believing that things can appear and disappear in this labyrinthine city, or that time here could easily slip in its sprockets and take you, willingly or unwillingly, back.

Sex has the unparalleled power to make us absurd to ourselves. It also has the power to make us understand transcendence.