I rarely write in my own voice except in book reviews and memoirs; otherwise, I am writing in mediated voices, modulated in terms of the characters whom the voices express.

Art is about freedom of expression, and should not be molded to fit any propaganda or lofty ideal.

I don't know what marriages are like in general, but there are many things which I don't talk about with my husband. We discuss practical problems, but I wouldn't sit down with him and talk about the distant past. It's somewhat in contrast to other Americans, who feel that they have to confess things, but I'm really not like that.

Only when you have completed a novel, or a story, can you return to the beginning and revise or rewrite.

The use of language is all we have to pit against death and silence.

None of the rest of my life figures here.

Not what the mind sees, but what the mind imagines the eye must see.