I think genius can have a lot to do with nerve. And permission.

All of my wildness is in the writing. I have discovered I have to be orderly and boring in my personal life to be wild in my work.

When I get too worked up about things I have always escaped into catatonia.

I think the female first-person is still dismissed, demonized, especially if the book does not end on an empowering note, especially if the main character is perceived as unlikeable, or too privileged.

I am worthy of being read. I mean, one has to be convinced of one's genius.

I think the mad wives and mistresses are my hysterics - even the fictionalized ones. I want to trace how they were silenced, I want to find for them an escape route.

I think for a woman, getting older can help, through personal experience, although of course older women are then rendered invisible in our society, another existential crisis.