Later, her first intense, serious love affair, yes then she'd lost something more tangible, if undefinable: her heart? her independence? her control of, definition of, self? That first true loss, the furious bafflement of it. And never again quite so assured, confident.

I could never take the idea of religion very seriously.

I think what distresses me most in my life is that I have so many ideas I consider exciting ideas that I will never live to execute because it takes me so long to execute.

Critics sometimes appear to be addressing themselves to works other than those I remember writing.

... such speculation is like staring into the hot white sun. you know the sun is there but you can't see a thing.

Beauty is a question of optics. All sight is illusion.

Detroit, my 'great' subject, made me the person I am, consequently the writer I am - for better or worse.