We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.

Women are their own worst enemies. And guilt is the main weapon of self-torture . . . Show me a woman who doesn't feel guilty and I'll show you a man.

The greatest feminists have also been the greatest lovers. I'm thinking not only of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley, but of Anais Nin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and of course Sappho. You cannot divide creative juices from human juices. And as long as juicy women are equated with bad women, we will err on the side of being bad.

Each one an antidote to the one that went before. Each one a reaction, an about-face, a rebound.

Betrayal betrays the betrayer.

If you imagine the world listening, you'll never write a line. That's why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone.

She was mine and not-mine all at once. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and the most terrifying.