Every woman who writes is a survivor.

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

Not to have an audience is a kind of death.

I could not live by literature if only to begin with, because of the slow maturing of my work and its special character.

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.

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

Literature is a place for generosity and affection and hunger for equals - not a prizefight ring. We are increased, confirmed in our medium, roused to do our best, by every good writer, every fine achievement. Would we want one good writer or fine book less? The sense of writers being pitted against each other is bred primarily by the workings of the commercial marketplace, and by critics lauding one writer at the expense of another while ignoring the existence of nearly all.