To punish the individual for the sins of the system makes no sense. We're responsible for changing it, yes. But we can't actually invent another universe, so we have to start where we are.

I'm still the same person who grew up mostly in a Midwestern, factory-working neighborhood where talk about "self-esteem" would have seemed like a luxury.

Life after 50 or 60 is itself another country, as different as adolescence is from childhood, or as adulthood is from adolescence - and just as adventurous.

Most writers write to say something about other people - and it doesn't last. Good writers write to find out about themselves - and it lasts forever.

I began to understand with a terrible sureness that we teach what we need to learn and write what we need to know.

No other form of violence is legitimate. It is never acceptable to use violence to solve a problem. Whether personal or political.

No matter how hard I worked, whatever I accomplished was attributed to my looks. If you're working your ass off, then you don't want to be told that you only got whatever because of the way you look. It takes the heart out of you.