One of the few graces of getting old - and God knows there are few graces - is that if you've worked hard and kept your nose to the grindstone, something happens: The body gets old but the creative mechanism is refreshed, smoothed and oiled and honed. That is the grace. That is what's happening to me.

I often went to bed without supper cause I hated my mother's cooking. So, to go to bed without supper was not a torture to me. If she was gonna hurt me, she'd make me eat.

All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew.

Knowledge is the driving force that puts creative passion to work.

I have a little tiny Emily Dickinson so big that I carry in my pocket everywhere. And you just read three poems of Emily. She is so brave. She is so strong. She is such a sexy, passionate, little woman. I feel better.

Why is my needle stuck in childhood? I don't know why. I guess it's because that's where my heart is.

You can't get rid of evil. We can't, and I feel that so intensely.