I guess my writing through time has focused on a number of dimensions that reflect separately on the meaning and social place of the female body.

If I could write a novel while I'm walking, I probably would.

I don't know where to place my body. Everyone notices that about me. I'm very restless.

Even today, I'm much more comfortable dressed in a male kind of way.

The things that I dislike passionately, I have come to realize, are also part of me.

I also wanted to be like my brothers, physically, and yet not physically. So I would constantly - and I think nowadays it's taken for granted that this is what girlfriends do - I would constantly wear their shorts, put on their shirts. That did not seem odd because we were desperately poor for quite a while. It wasn't as if pretty little girlie things were available to me.

I look at my young students, and I no longer have the sense that, oh, I'm the authority and they have to meet a certain standard. It's like, oh, look at these young ones. They've got such a hard road in front of them. I don't envy them having life ahead of them.