My characters are always on the outside; the spotlight's not on them. But they do get somewhere.

The journey is not linear, it is always back and forth, denying the calendar, the wrinkles and lines of the body.

Life gives you enough hard knocks so it's unlikely you'll stay that sure of yourself.

I love the apparent quiet of reading a book. You sit there; you're not really moving. It looks very solitary. It looks very boring, but actually it's the most exciting place because it's going on for you, and you're in that relationship. In that sense, it's like being with a lover. Nobody else can intrude on that space. It's the two of you. It's your own world.

The Buddhists say there are 149 ways to God. I'm not looking for God, only for myself, and that is far more complicated. God has had a great deal written about Him; nothing has been written about me. God is bigger, like my mother, easier to find, even in the dark. I could be anywhere, and since I can't describe myself I can't ask for help.

To me, life, for all its privations, is a luminous thing. You have to risk it.

History is a string full of knots, the best you can do is admire it, and maybe tie it up a bit more. History is a hammock for swinging and a game for playing.