To be pregnant has been for me each time the supreme joy ... I was doing the greatest thing in the world without having to do anything -- all I had to do was be.

I don't read anything about myself. As a child, there was something in me that was just instinctive. I want to be clear in my spirit, and I don't want to be blocked by things that get inside of you and kill you.

I don't categorize myself as an 85-year-old woman who has written an erotic novel. I categorize myself as a writer who's written an erotic novel.

I've been really very fortunate with the men I've been involved with. They've always really treated me very, very wonderfully. And whenever anything broke up, I was always the one to leave. So I think I've been really very, very lucky.

I do take very good care of myself, and I'm always in love. And by that I mean I have an appetite for life. I'm in love with beauty and things and people and love and being in love, and those things I think, on the inside, show on the outside.

Why not me? Suffering, she understood, is, in fact, random, universal.

I'm always in love. If it's not with a man, it's something else. I love beauty. I love the sky I see outside the window. There's so much beauty in the world.