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

The best training is to read and write, no matter what. Don't live with a lover or roommate who doesn't respect your work. Don't lie, buy time, borrow to buy time. Write what will stop your breath if you don't write.

I have a basic indolence about me which is essential to writing. ... It's thinking time, it's hanging-out time, it's daydreaming time. You know, it's lie-around-the-bed time, it's sitting-like-a-dope-in-your-chair time. And that seems to me essential to any work.

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.

If I miss anything, it's being able to hang out in the city of New York meeting people and talking to them on the corner.

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

…I go through a story for lies. I might discover the lie of trying to show off. Sometimes they’re lies of character. Sometimes they are lies of writing the most beautiful sentence in the world that has nothing to do with the story.