Hope is one of those no-win-no-fee things, and although it needs some encouragement to survive, its existence doesn't necessarily prove anything.

Hope is like one of those orchids that grows around toxic waste: lovely in itself - and an assertion, if you like, of indefatigable good - but a sure sign that something nasty lies underneath.

As writers go, I have a skin of average thickness. I am pleased by a good review, disappointed by a bad. None of it penetrates far enough to influence the thing I write next.

That's writing for you: when you make space for passion, it doesn't turn up.

How can there be so many mothers in the world but so little sense of what it might be to become one?

The creativity of childhood was often surrendered amid feelings of unworthiness. So the idea that ­others are demanding to be given it back - to be "taught" - is disturbing.

Childhood, after all, is not an ending, but rather a state full of potent curiosity.

Even if they knew the truth of their own feelings, most mothers would be socially and emotionally incapable of revealing it.

Honest criticism, I suppose, has its place. But honest writing is infinitely more valuable.

People are least aware of others when demonstrating their own power over them.

Reality might be described as the eternal equipoise of positive and negative.

If my goal is simply to survive the journey, then I’m not on the journey in the first place.

Brains will always conquer brawn, in the end. The soldiers can flex their muscles all they want, but the well-thought-out tactics of the generals are what win the war.

America is the greatest country in the world - I love America. What I've accomplished could not have been done anywhere else.

Evening bags should be just big enough for my phone, lipstick, house key, and credit card.

We in this country have to make up our minds -- -- we can not have it both ways: we cannot be both drug-free and free.

That's a good question. Let me try to evade you.

In the studio system, things are expected of a film. By the first, second, third act, there's a generic language that comes out of the more commercial system.

With few exceptions, one ought always do what one is afraid of.

After every storm the sun will smile; for every problem there is a solution, and the soul's indefeasible duty is to be of good cheer.