I live alone, with cats, books, pictures, fresh vegetables to cook, the garden, the hens to feed.

You know every cell in our bodies is completely renewed every seven years, so how can we talk about being the same person? We're absolutely not.

When I fell in love it was as though I looked into a mirror for the first time and saw myself.

Seeing one's books on the shelf tells you so much about the way somebody has, over the years, put together their private library, which is a reflection of their minds and their selves.

Do all lovers feel helpless and valiant in the presence of the beloved? Helpless because the need to roll over like a pet dog is never far away. Valiant because you know you would slay a dragon with a pocket knife if you had to.

Unconditional love is what a child should expect from a parent even though it rarely works out that way.

Writing is both bomb and bomb disposal-a necessary shattering of cliche and assumption, and a powerful defusing of the soul-destroying messages of modern life (that nothing matters, nothing changes, money is everything, etc). Writing is a state of being as well as an act of doing.