I know that nobody who hasn't been in battle or under attack can know what war is. But even in terms of being safe at home, it's also true that many Americans who think they know what being at war is, don't. Including, of course, George W. Bush and his people. They don't have a clue.

Anyhow they’re always exceptions. But most women, their only relationship to a man is having. Either owning or being owned.

It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.

I had forgotten how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me.

If you're a fiction writer, though, I can tell you how to let people talk through you. Listen. Just be quiet, and listen. Let the character talk. Don't censor, don't control. Listen, and write.

Translation is entirely mysterious. Increasingly I have felt that the art of writing is itself translating, or more like translating than it is like anything else

A writer either speaks to adults and bores kids, or speaks to kids and upsets adults.