The fundamental condition of childhood is powerlessness.

Another thing I learned is that novels, even those from apparently distant times and places, remain current and enlightening, and also comforting.

I love to write about sex. You just have to make it idiosyncratic. You have to have a strong comprehension of your characters, and write it from their point of view. It's really fun. It's not erotic.

If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various stages of your foolishness.

Not every novel that wants to be a tragedy gets to be one.

The brave view is that talking it out helps work it out. Maybe the realistic view is that talking it out inflames the issues further. But that is America, especially these days.

The one thing ... maybe no family could tolerate was things coming out into the open.