I don't think you will ever fully understand how you've touched my life and made me who I am. I don't think you could ever know just how truly special you are that even on the darkest nights you are my brightest star

When I sit down at my writing desk, time seems to vanish. I think it's a wonderful way to spend one's life.

Conflict is the soul of literature.

Anybody who instantly goes from being a poet and a graduate student to being a public figure has to be in a state of shock. First people want to praise you, and then they want to attack you. No one can prepare you for it.

the only people worth writing about are those about whom the last word cannot be said.

The absolute bedrock of our independence is having control over our own bodies. You cannot be independent if the government or someone else says whether or not you can use birth control. Unless you're in charge of your body, you're not in charge of anything. I think that's really the bottom line of feminism.

we all carry the Houses of our Youth inside, and our Parents, too, grown small enough to fit within our Hearts.