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

I saw my ex-husband in the street. I was sitting on the steps of the new library. Hello, my life, I said. We had once been married for twenty-seven years, so I felt justified. He said, What? What life? No life of mine.

I don't believe civilization can do a lot more than educate a person's senses.

My job is to get people to write something truthful, something about truth and beauty - wherever they are - and to understand how literature is made. And then if they become great writers, that's great, and probably has nothing to do with me.

My vocabulary is adequate for writing notes and keeping journals but absolutely useless for an active moral life.

I didn't write any fiction until I was past thirty.

Well, by now you must know yourself, honey, whatever you do, life don't stop. It only sits a minute and dreams a dream.