I write the way women have babies. You don't know it's going to be like that. If you did, there's no way you would go through with it.

Literature, it seems to me, is wisdom.

My home is such a powerfully imaginative place that the space is almost irrelevant. I think the house I live at on the Hudson is where I belong because it's the only place where I am that I never think about when I'm leaving.

You free. Nothing and nobody is obliged to save you but you.

I don't think one parent can raise a child. I don't think two parents can raise a child. You really need the whole village.

When there is pain, there are no words. All pain is the same.

More than fear of loving bears or birds bigger than cows, I fear pathless nights. How, I wonder, can I find you in the dark?