There are worse words than cuss-words, there are words that hurt.

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

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

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

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.

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

Not to have an audience is a kind of death.