I have forgotten my rave reviews and memorized my vicious ones - like most writers.

I have a very sensitive nose. I identify with dogs. I understand the world through my nose.

You must find the right voice (or voices) for the timbre that can convince a reader to give himself up to you.

It takes courage to lead a life. Any life.

Once I worshipped Keats for dying young. Now I think it's braver to die old.

Growing up female in America. What a liability! You grew up with your ears full of cosmetic ads, love songs, advice columns, whoreoscopes, Hollywood gossip, and moral dilemmas on the level of TV soap operas. What litanies the advertisers of the good life chanted at you! What curious catechisms!

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.