I am a writer and a feminist, and the two seem to be constantly in conflict.... ever since I became loosely involved with it, it has seemed to me one of the recurring ironies of this movement that there is no way to tell the truth about it without, in some small way, seeming to hurt it.

You get to be a certain age and you start reading stuff about the age you are, and you think, what is wrong with these people who are writing these books? Do they not have necks?

Some people pretend to like capers, but the truth is that any dish that tastes good with capers in it tastes even better with capers not in it.

These days most women have jobs that last way too long. A lot of people in New York barely have time to get laid.

[Wellesley College] is about as meaningful to the educational process in America as a perfume factory is to the national economy.

I think you often have that sense when you write--that if you can spot something in yourself and set it down on paper, you're free of it. And you're not, of course; you've just managed to set it down on paper, that's all.

When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.