Never joke with the press. Irony does not translate into newsprint.

Nothing quite has reality for me till I write it all down--revising and embellishing as I go. I'm always waiting for things to be over so I can get home and commit them to paper.

We were not human beings going through spiritual experiences; we were spiritual beings going through human experiences, in order to grow.

The aim of my writing is to utterly remove the distance between author and reader so that the book becomes a sort of semipermeable membrane through which feelings, ideas, nutrients pass.

My mother wanted me to be her wings, to fly as she never quite had the courage to do. I love her for that. I love the fact that she wanted to give birth to her own wings.

All my forebears worked for a living. My grandfather painted portraits. My mother too. My aunt painted seascapes.

We all parent the best we can. Being human, we're ambivalent. We want perfection for our babies, but we also need sleep.