You know the mind is an astonishing, long-living, erotic thing.

No metaphor reinvents the job of the nurture of children except to muddy or mock.

I should have written more. I should have written more during the period when I just liked so much doing the political work in the streets.

I know I've done good work. I've been very serious about my writing, and I've done the best that I could. But I don't feel that I've done more than I should have. In fact, I've done less than I should have.

I didn't intend. The word "intend" is the wrong word for what I do. It's just that it's something you do, and you can't not do. If you want to do it, and you don't intend to, you do it anyway. The word "intend" is wrong. The word "pressure" is right. It's like any art form.

My mother went to demonstrations. I remember her going to a big demonstration for Earl Brower and she came home crying and said the Communists were very mean and booed their people. I remember feeling sad at her feeling sad.

I begin by writing paragraphs that don’t have an immediate relation to a plot. The sound of the story comes first.