When I stopped seeing my mother with the eyes of a child, I saw the woman who helped me give birth to myself.

To say something nice about themselves, this is the hardest thing in the world for people to do.

No man can be really free in bed with a woman who is not.

I think biologically we are attracted to more than one person, but given society and our needs, monogamy works better.

All my writing has been an effort to sort out the paradoxes of my life.

I like the company of men. I've never been welcome in those groups, but then I would no more go to a consciousness-raising group and talk about my intimate life with my husband than fly to the moon. I never understood all that.

For instance, in group therapy, I'll have people stand up, show off, give a speech about themselves as though they've just died and have to give a eulogy. Even with this explicit permission - even an order - to say something nice about themselves, this is the hardest thing in the world for people to do. They'd rather take their clothes off.