I see that the greatest thing about getting older is how your judgment changes and how you come to understand the cycles of life. And you keep having these amazing flashes of understanding.

Writing is one of the few professions left where you take all the responsibility for what you do. It's really dangerous and ultimately destroys you as a writer if you start thinking about responses to your work or what your audience needs.

Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared.

And what if I don't want forgiveness?

Is a currency worth anything if no one wants it? We used to buy shoes in Italy. Remember?

Isn't that the problem? That women have been swindled for centuries into substituting adornment for love, fashion (as it were) for passion?

It was the old psychosomatic side-step. Everyone in my family dances it at every opportunity. You've given me a splitting headache! You've given me indigestion! You've given me crotch rot! You've given me auditory hallucinations! You've given me a heart attack! You've given me cancer!