My mother answers all my fan mail.

I know from an early age that I'm very comfortable in front of people. When I was a young girl, I'd love giving book reports.

I'm pretty moral about what I do. If I didn't think I was worthy of doing something, I wouldn't do it. I ain't gonna waste a bunch of people's time.

I wanted to see who this Yeats person was, and I said to my mother, 'I want a book by this person.' And she bought it for me, and a lot of it was over my head, but I had it.

I was so unhealthy as a child, and at least three or four times my parents were told to get ready, that I would not make it.

I had gone to Paris to immerse myself in painting and I came back wholly involved in words and rhythms.

He found it was as easy to hurl beauty as anything else. (On Robert Mapplethorpe)