A dreary censorship, and self-censorship, has been imposed on books by the centralization of the book industry.

You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.

The stones themselves are thick with history, and those cats that dash through the alleyways must surely be the ghosts of the famous dead in feline disguise.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.

Ambivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own.

Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.

How wonderful to have someone to blame! How wonderful to live with one's nemesis! You may be miserable, but you feel forever in the right.

My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.

Man's ethics must not end with man, but should extend to the universe. He must regain the consciousness of the great Chain of Life from which he cannot be separated.

I still think that if you're excited about something, you have to work at it.

One of the dirty little secrets of my job is that I don't do ANY food or cooking shows.

Most writers are in a state of gloom a good deal of the time; they need perpetual reassurance.

We are bound by our limitations to believe.

I am 5ft 6in and weigh about 11 stone - about a stone overweight, but that's because of my brain.

Navigate by the same star, unwilling to change, and you find yourself not only off-course but lost.

George Bush is a fan of mine, he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him.

Promising is the very air o' the time; it opens the eyes of expectation.