The caged eagle become a metaphor for all forms of isolation, the ultimate in imprisonment. A zoo is prison.

My answer is: Recognize yourself in others

What is the purpose of writing? For me personally, it is really to explain the mystery of life, and the mystery of life includes, of course, the personal, the political, the forces that make us what we are while there's another force from inside battling to make us something else.

A desert is a place without expectation.

In various and different circumstances certain objects and individuals are going to turn out to be vital. The wager of survival cannot, by its nature, reveal which, in advance of events.

I'm forty-nine but I could be twenty-five except for my face and my legs.

It's absolutely fatal to your writing to think about how your work will be received. It's a betrayal of whatever talent you have.