If you put a woman in a man's position, she will be more efficient, but no more kind.

Another thing that seems quite helpful to the creative process is having babies. It does not detract at all from one's creativity. It reminds one that there is always more where that came from and there is never any shortage of ideas or of the ability to create. The process of being pregnant and then of having the baby and getting up in the night only puts one more in touch with this fecund part of one's self.

She could see that to lose a sibling was hard: it could only seem unnatural:out of time, out of order, a vicious re-run of your own departure into nothingness.

There is no real escape from autobiography into biography. The self has to be faced, or we die.

Ambition will, and should, always outstrip achievement.

Much sheer effort goes into avoiding the truth; left to itself, it sweeps in like the tide.

Prudence says one thing, desire says another, and I'd rather go with desire any time.