I do hope that young men and women will start to think for themselves and start to take responsibility for their own thoughts.

If I wanted to write, I had to be willing to develop a kind of concentration found mostly in people awaiting execution. I had to learn technique and surrender my ignorance.

Making a decision to write was a lot like deciding to jump into a frozen lake.

When I passed forty I dropped pretense, 'cause men like women who got some sense.

I do not believe that the accident of birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them siblings. Gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood are conditions people have to work at. It's a serious matter. You compromise, you give, you take, you stand firm, and you're relentless...And it is an investment. Sisterhood means if you happen to be in Burma and I happen to be in San Diego and I'm married to someone who is very jealous and you're married to somebody who is very possessive, if you call me in the middle of the night, I have to come.

Have enough courage to love.

You can't get too high for somebody to bring you down.