We lose ourselves in stories; that's the beauty of literary art.

Women really are not supposed to be imaginative. That creativity of this kind is supposed to belong to men. You know, because women make babies. I find the double standards shocking.

Whenever I sign books, I get this line over and over again from men: "I don't read fiction, but my wife does. Would you sign the book to her?" What are those men doing there? And where are their wives?

Reading is perception as translation. The inert signs of an alphabet become living meanings in the mind.

I think that it's important for people to read philosophy and literature is not because I think everyone should be a well-rounded human being, but because it will help you think better about what you are doing.

Memory is essential to who we are, and memories can be both implicit and explicit - unconscious and conscious.

Every sickness has an alien quality, a feeling of invasion and loss of control that is evident in the language we use about it.