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.

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

As an older person, I do feel an obligation to tell the story about what was really happening in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, as I saw it.

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.

In the end, long life is the reward, strength, and beauty.

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.

Art is too long, and life is too short.