Old age is not a good thing. It can be really hard, and those of us who have it a little easier should keep in mind that there are hundreds of thousands of people who are not as well off.

My family were Russian Jews. They got you to read as soon as you could. And then assumed you would read a lot. People didn't really tell stories but they were good talkers. That's important for a writer, to hear speakers.

I might write four lines or I might write twenty. I subtract and I add until I really hit something I want to do. You don't always whittle down, sometimes you whittle up.

The women's movement was coming, but I didn't know it in 1956-1957, when I began to write.

To be modest means that you have something to be modest about.

In the end, long life is the reward, strength, and beauty.

Waves, once they land on the beach, are not reversible.