She did what girls generally do when they don't feel the part: she dressed it instead.

The idea that motherhood is inherently somehow a threat to creativity is just absurd.

Rarely does one see a squirrel tremble.

It made me feel that I had to work very hard, but I've always felt I had to work very hard to get my own approval.

Your mid-thirties is a good time because you know a fair amount, you have some self-control.

Other people’s words are so important. And then without warning they stop being important, along with all those words of yours that their words prompted you to write. Much of the excitement of a new novel lies in the repudiation of the one written before. Other people’s words are the bridge you use to cross from where you were to wherever you’re going.

The library was the place I went to find out what there was to know. It was absolutely essential.