Lighting does occasionally strike and occasional the result isn't a corpse.

More than in any other human relationship, overwhelmingly more, motherhood means being instantly interruptible, responsive, and responsible

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.

She would not exchange her solitude for anything. Never again to be forced to move to the rhythms of others.

It is a long baptism into the seas of humankind, my daughter. Better immersion than to live untouched.

I very much dislike the word "race," and I never use it. I use the word "racist." Race is not a fact. There is only one race: human. Skin color is less than 2 percent of the DNA.

And when is there time to remember, to sift, to weigh, to estimate, to total?