The inimitable writer Maxine Hong Kingston published a book in 2002 with the title To Be the Poet. However, in contrast to the transformatory distinctions Kingston makes between the conditions of being a prose writer and "the poet," my multigenre impulses incline me to a broader transformation: to be a writer.

With so many brothers, I could always find a pair of shorts to borrow and run around in.

Saul Bellow has that character in Henderson the Rain King say: "I want, I want, I want!"9 I remember reading this passage years ago and thinking, yes, that's the human.

I don't really get into the power sufficiently, and that's also a problem for me.

Just because suddenly you have a sabbatical doesn't mean that the writing occasion comes to you.

Once you stop talking about the female body empowering itself vis-à-vis male forays or invasions or male demands or the necessity to respond to husband and son to bring the issue down to a more concrete level, the body is a different manifestation physically.

Heterosexuality - whichever gender you are - says that the other gender is very important to you.