I was fortunate that by the time I was born, there were a lot of comforts and at the same time I lived in a neighborhood where it was brought to my eyes every single day that people didn't live like me. Every day I knew that many of my friends "got relief." That was important in my thinking about the world, thinking that not everybody lived that way.

I did write a number of reports on my political experiences, but there were many omissions, and I feel bad about that because it was work that was interesting and had I written more about it, it could have been useful.

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

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.

For me, the meaning of life is the next generation.

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

People will sometimes say, "Why don't you write more politics?" And I have to explain to them that writing the lives of women IS politics.