I don't really do anything that isn't about writing, and I don't really know who I am if I'm not thinking about writing.

I've never gotten used to winter and never will.

I've come to see that I'm saying something that people generally do not want to hear.

The strange thing about my life is that I came to America at about the time when racial attitudes were changing. This was a big help to me. Also, the people who were most cruel to me when I first came to America were black Americans. They made absolute fun of the way I talked, the way I dressed. I couldn't dance. The people who were most kind and loving to me were white people. So what can one make of that? Perhaps it was a coincidence that all the people who found me strange were black and all the people who didn't were white.

He must have smiled at me, though I don't really know, but I don't like to think that I would love someone who hadn't first smiled at me.

I can't get upset about 'offensive to women' or 'offensive to blacks' or 'offensive to Native Americans' or 'offensive to Jews' ... Offend! I can't get worked up about it. Offend!

It is true that our skin is sort of more or less the same shade. But is it true that our skin color makes us a distinctive race? No.