When one has children one has no privacy. They take it for granted that what is yours is theirs, personal things and the secrets of your heart, as well as possessions.

there must be a routine to life, a framework to hang life on. Routines were what kept you sane, gave you something to do at this moment and at that, definite places to go, positive things to do. Abandon it and that way madness lies.

While most of the things you've worried about have never happened, it's a different story with the things you haven't worried about. They are the ones that happen.

I get a lot of letters from people. They say "I want to be a writer. What should I do?" I tell them to stop writing to me and to get on with it.

There are only two periods in a woman's life when she hopes to be taken for older than she is, under sixteen and over ninety.

I can't exist without books.

To be a classic, a novel should be original.