War tears, rends. War rips open, eviscerates. War scorches. War dismembers. War ruins.

An important job of the critic is to savage what is mediocre or meretricious.

writers are makers, not just transmitters, of myths. Literature offers not only myths but counter-myths, just as life offers counter-experiences - experiences that confound what you thought you thought, or felt, or believed.

I have been told that I am a "natural" feminist, someone who was born a feminist. In fact I was quite blind to what the problem was: I couldn't understand why anyone would hesitate to do what they wanted to do just because they were told that women didn't do such things.

What I really wanted was every kind of life, and the writer’s life seemed the most inclusive.

The writers or artists I write about are not necessarily those I care most about (Shakespeare is still my favourite writer) but those whose work I feel has been neglected.

In good films, there is always a directness that entirely frees us from the itch to interpret.