That's what I want to be when I grow up, just a peaceful wreck holding hands with other peaceful wrecks.

Not to have an audience is a kind of death.

Every woman who writes is a survivor.

Better immersion than to live untouched.

I don't want to die leaving the world as it is right now.

Think about all that we've lost that has been said orally because nobody was taking it down. I feel very fortunate to live in a time where we have so many different voices. We have a much richer literature than we've ever had, and we can know America so much better.

Compared to men writers of like distinction and years of life, few women writers have had lives of unbroken productivity, or leave behind a 'body of work.' Early beginnings, then silence; or clogged late ones (foreground silences); long periods between books (hidden silences); characterize most of us.