I did not choose solitude. Who would? It came on me like a kind of vocation, demanding an effort that married women can't picture.

I think one of the reasons to be here on earth is to finally be who we are, at all times - to know and be predictable to ourselves.

By writing I can live in ways that I could not survive.

Sometimes a person's monstrosity seems superhuman.

my mind ran over scenes of Shesheeb seducing Margaret until I was a wagon dragged by the runaway horses of my jealousy.

There are people who are always, I think, going to remain people of the book, to use another author's title, but people of the book, who really must be around.

Things which do not grow and change are dead things.