To choose the ideal voice for a character is to give a character an ardent and vivid life, to allow him or her to speak, rather than speaking for them, in an older style of omniscient narration.

The ideal art, the noblest of art: working with the complexities of life, refusing to simplify, to "overcome" doubt.

Before you can write a novel you have to have a number of ideas that come together. One idea is not enough.

I write so much because my cat sits on my lap. She purrs so I don't want to get up. She's so much more calming than my husband.

The only people who claim that money is not important are people who have enough money so that they are relieved of the ugly burden of thinking about it.

I'm nobody's daughter now. I'm through with that.

Why is humanism not the preeminent belief of humankind?