And so it happened again, the daily miracle whereby interiority opens out and brings to bloom the million-petalled flower of being here, in the world, with other people. Neither as hard as she had thought it might be nor as easy as it appeared.

Art is the Western myth, with which we both console ourselves and make ourselves.

People profess to have certain political positions, but their conservatism or liberalism is really the least interesting thing about them.

Full stories are as rare as honesty.

I'm just interested in women's friendships generally. It always seems to me, and this is just my pet theory, that women are kind of at the sharp end of capitalism one way or another. Mainly because they buy everything. In a practical sense, women buy most things. They're always comparing - to friends, to famous people, to other people. An obsessive act of comparison.

First rule of writing: When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.

I'm most honest about writing when I'm talking to family or friends, not to newspapers.