I knew a book of mine was finished when I was in intensive care.

To be one woman, truly, wholly, is to be all women. Tend one garden and you will birth worlds.

Just being in a room with myself is almost more stimulation than I can bear.

Whenever I get lost in a novel I just throw a poem in. What it does is flare up, and it's so illuminated that I'm able to see where to go. I write between these illuminations.

I write a lot by sound. One sound leads me to another. These sounds aren't random; they have their own logic.

In communist countries, you execute your poets. In the free world, the poets execute themselves.

All good writing is built one good line at a time. You build a novel the same way you do a pyramid. One word, one stone at a time, underneath a full moon while the fingers bleed.

Women have waited millions of years, growing separate as another species, with visions and priorities no man-words, no man-measurements can comprehend.

If you can be anything else but a writer, be it.

I have a great ability to improvise verbally and I am very funny on a dime.

Women are defined by their biography, and men are sacrosanct from their biography.

The sooner you make a mistake and learn to live with it, the better. You're not responsible for everything. You can't control the way things end up.

A man who believes everything can be explained by science is just as ignorant as someone who believes everything can be explained by religion.

The thought of you makes my heart melt.

I have a very old and very faithful attachment for dogs. I like them because they always forgive.

I've given up trying to understand what people think about me.

In general, women desire to rule over their husbands and lovers, to be the authority above them.

I think the deepest belief I have . . . is that love really is the answer to all problems.

I think I am an adult.

Movies make you immortal and ageless.

Don't underestimate the power of the nonverbal. You'd be amazed how many people come in for interviews with poor posture, weak handshakes, and blank stares.