Not until my middle thirties did I consider myself a novelist.

The price of dishonesty is self-destruction.

What's the point of being a lesbian if a woman is going to look and act like an imitation man?

No one remembers her beginnings. Mothers and aunts tell us about infancy and early childhood, hoping we won't forget the past when they had total control over our lives and secretly praying that because of it, we'll include them in our future.

I write poetry. It comes naturally to me, but from a technical point of view it forces me to pay close attention to language and to scan.

A controller doesn't trust his/her ability to live through the pain and chaos of life. There is no life without pain just as there is no art without submitting to chaos.

Mothers have a habit of proving right except you don't find that out until you're the age your mother was when she gave you the advice.