I'm sorry that our country and the people do not consider the arts as vital to our well-being as, say, medicine. Suffering is unnecessary. It doesn't make you a better artist; it only makes you a hungry one. However, to me the acquisition of the craft of writing was worth any amount of suffering.

No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love

Trouble is said to be good for an artist's soul but almost never is.

One thing Mom taught me, "You're going to be dead a long time, so do it now!"

We animals live life in all its glorious uncertainty. Why do politicians think they can control events?

If you don't like my book, write your own. If you don't think you can write a novel, that ought to tell you something. If you think you can, do. No excuses. If you still don't like my novel, find a book you do like. Life is too short to be miserable. If you do like my novels, I commend your good taste.

When Mother died I was both freed and abandoned, as are we all at this profound juncture in our lives.