This is what I miss, Cordelia: not something that’s gone, but something that will never happen. Two old women giggling over their tea.

In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys.

It's only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all. When you're telling it, to yourself or to someone else.

As an artist your first loyalty is to your art. Unless this is the case, you're going to be a second-rate artist.

The story as told in The Odyssey doesn't hold water. There are too many inconsistencies.

Nature is to zoos as God is to churches.

If you're waiting for the perfect moment, you'll never write a thing because it will never arrive. I have no routine. I have no foolproof anything. There's nothing foolproof.