A woman's body is the gate to this life. A man's body is the gate to the next life.

A woman's body is the gate to this life. A man's body is the gate to the next life.

History works itself out in the living.

Being a girl didn't really affect me until I entered junior high and had to wear skirts, curl my hair, and even get used to panty hose. However, my hatred of panty hose helped make me a writer who only wears comfortable clothes. I've successfully avoided panty hose for most of my life.

There are ways of being abandoned even when your parents are right there.

Now I'm sixty-one... sixty-two, pretty soon. It's a really interesting age. Now we have women of your age, and coming up, and all these fantastic writers, who have managed to have their children but continue with their art, their work. I think women are doing the most interesting writing right now, the most interesting art. I see everything through this lens, of women finally taking their place in the world. Their true place. And it's very, very exciting to me.

Your life feels different on you, once you greet death and understand your heart's position.