A man will reveal his true self, or so it seems, on the tennis court.

I see the world in ways that might be considered somewhat harsh and Darwinistic. At the same time mediated, as in Darwin, by a real idealism and an excitement about the possibilities of the intellect and imagination to deal with this somewhat brutal world.

Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.

Most people who are writers go through periods when they can't write.

I come from people who did not go to college. They didn't even finish high school. People who one might call ordinary Americans who are very hardworking.

People have libraries at home, they have bookshelves, they have CDs. And they sort of try, people try to bring great artists into their lives, into their physical houses and sort of live with portions of them. But they're not really deeply engaging with them.

I am what would be called a 'mainstream feminist,' not a radical feminist.