Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life.

Write what will stop your breath if you don’t write.

I do lots of reading and speaking at many universities about literature and also about politics, which is as much a part of my life as the literature.

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

Just when I most needed important conversation, a sniff of the man-wide world, that is, at least one brainy companion who could translate my friendly language into his tongue of undying carnal love, I was forced to lounge in our neighborhood park, surrounded by children.

Good talkers are people who use interesting language and have a lot of energy in speech and who also listen.

The only thing you should have to do is find work you love to do. And I can't imagine living without having loved a person. A man, in my case. It could be a woman, but whatever. I think, what I always tell kids when they get out of class and ask, 'What should I do now?' I always say, 'Keep a low overhead. You're not going to make a lot of money.' And the next thing I say: 'Don't live with a person who doesn't respect your work.' That's the most important thing—that's more important than the money thing. I think those two things are very valuable pieces of information.