It's strange, but when it comes right down to it I never do fall apart--even when I'm sure I will.

Without peanut butter, I might starve.

I would make up [Theodor] Seuss-like books at night when I was cleaning up from the dinner, you know, putting these little kids to bed, reading them rhyming books. And so that's what I started doing. They were really bad. I have some in a box and it says on the box, it's a note to my kids you know, when I die, if you ever publish these I will come back and haunt you.

What's the point of thinking about how it's going to end when it's just the beginning?

We weren't doing blow jobs when I was growing up.

I thought [books ban] was crazy. Really my thoughts were "This is America, we don't do this here" but of course I know a lot better now. And I wasn't the only one. Norma Klein was writing at the same time. Her books were going. So many of us. When you say to me, no you can't do this I say, oh yes I can.

I meet people on the street or at book signings and they tend to treat me as if they know me, as if we're connected. It's great.