You wish to be liked. I wish simply to be. One day you will know what that means, perhaps. And you will smile. Not against me. But with me.

Men love war because it allows them to look serious. Because it is the one thing that stops women laughing at them.

The newspapers are full of what we would like to happen to us and what we hope will never happen to us.

I don't think the English like me. I sold a colossal best seller in America, and they never really forgave me.

I do not plan my fiction any more than I normally plan woodland walks; I follow the path that seems most promising at any given point, not some itinerary decided before entry.

The power of women! I've never felt so full of mysterious power. Men are a joke. We're so weak physically, so helpless with things. Still, even today. But we're stronger than they are. We can stand their cruelty. They can't stand ours.

I read and I read; and I was like a medieval king, I had fallen in love with the picture long before I saw the reality.