The future is merely a shadow which blocks out the joys of the present and emphasizes the miseries of the past.

The hardest part is believing in yourself at the notebook stage. It is like believing in dreams in the morning.

I don't necessarily read everything. I read what I need to read to inspire the book I'm trying to finish.

Writers are doubters, compulsives, self-flagellants. The torture only stops for brief moments.

The soul is awakened through service.

My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.

When I was a ten-year old bookworm and used to kiss the dust jacket pictures of authors as if they were icons, it used to amaze me that these remote people could provoke me to love.