Nothing kinder than strangers. Nothing stranger than kindness.

She knew the intensity of adolescence, and knew no cure for it except growing up. And then one has age and experience, and mourns the loss of intensity. Maybe it's why musicians and mathmaticians are said to peak young-poetry needs the fire of an unbounded universe.

I had wanted to write Ghost Country for a long time, but it wouldn't work.

I'm a grandmother, and a mighty proud one.

I realised I'd never climb Everest but thought I could still write a book

Every writer's difficult journey is a movement from silence to speech. We must be intensely private and interior in order to find a voice and a vision - and we must bring our work to an outside world where the market, or public outrage, or even government censorship can destroy our voice.

I love to sing. I'm a soprano.