Better mankind born without mouths and stomachs than always to worry about money to buy, to shop, to fix, to cook, to wash, to clean.

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.

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

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

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

It is distraction, not meditation, that becomes habitual; interruption, not continuity; spasmodic, not constant toil.

I know that I haven’t powers enough to divide myself into one who earns and one who creates.