I remember how surprised I was when my first novel was about to be published and I was informed that I could be sued for anything any one of my characters said. 'But I often don't agree with what they say,' I protested. The lawyer was not interested in the clear distinction I make between my own voice and the voices of my characters. Neither, I have found, are many of my readers.

Knowledge is a collective enterprise. Without it understanding is impossible. Ignorance is too often a murderous vulnerability.

Love is the terrible secret people are suspected of unless they're married, then one always suspects they don't.

This desert town was man's own miracle of pure purposelessness.

I was very frightened when I turned forty. I suddenly thought I ought to wake up and be speaking with the voice of God.

People genuinely happy in their choices seem less often tempted to force them on other people than those who feel martyred and broken by their lives.

Coming out, all the way out, is offered more and more as the political solution to our oppression. The argument goes that, if people could see just how many of us there are, some in very important places, the negative stereotype would vanish overnight. ...It is far more realistic to suppose that, if the tenth of the population that is gay became visible tomorrow, the panic of the majority of people would inspire repressive legislation of a sort that would shock even the pessimists among us.