I've never felt grounded because of my ancestry or my gender. I think until women get away from that they're not going to be great writers.

I'm certain, as we filled down the great staircase, that I appeared the same as ever, a moping twelve years-old, all arms and legs. But secretly I knew I had been transformed, moved by the revelation that human beings create art, that to be an artist was to see what others could not.

New York is the thing that seduced me.

I'd never had people drive me around, and then all of a sudden, if a car didn't come, I'd say, "Where's my car?"

I had a handful of records, but when I was 11 years old, I liked Puccini as much as Little Richard. They both made sense to me.

The things I thought would happen didn't. Things I never anticipated unfolded.

Since I was a child, I hated having to deal with my hair. I hated having to change my clothes. As a kid, I had a sailor shirt and the same old corduroy pants, and that's what I wanted to wear everyday.