I don't believe in predestination - except for genetic predilections.

What is a family, after all, except memories? Haphazard and precious as the contents of a catch-all drawer in the kitchen.

The relationship between parents and children, but especially between mothers and daughters, is tremendously powerful, scarcely to be comprehended in any rational way.

When one crosses over from an activity, or the verb, of writing or doing, and becomes a noun, like "a writer" I think that is an act of supreme self-consciousness that I've never, in effect, made. I write, but I don't like to think of myself as a writer. I think it's somewhat self-aggrandizing and pretentious. Now, I am a teacher.

For what is delusion but the prelude to hurt. And what is hurt but the prelude to rage.

I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card…and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.

Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a peanut with your nose across a very dirty floor.