Under every friendship there is a difficult sentence that must be said, in order that the friendship can be survived.

- You look fine. - Right. I look fine. Except I don't, said Zora, tugging sadly at her man's nightshirt. This was why Kiki had dreaded having girls: she knew she wouldn't be able to protect them from self-disgust.

They had nothing to say to each other. A five-year age gap between siblings is like a garden that needs constant attention. Even three months apart allows the weeds to grow up between you.

A lot of women, when they're young, feel they have very good friends, and find later on that friendship is complicated. It's easy to be friends when everyone's 18. It gets harder the older you get, as you make different life choices, as people say in America. A lot of women's friendships begin to founder.

Try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.

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

A writer's duty is to register what it is like for him or her to be in the world.