I remain fascinated by where you go as a woman once you are a mother, and if you ever come back.

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.

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.

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

Take chances! Get messy! Make mistakes!

Perfection isn't everything, " she said as she turned and walked away. "I think the flaws are what make it perfect.

The manager needs only a molehill to build a mountain, but the money-ger needs a full mountain to build another.

Just another part of that Spartan killer instinct. I can slay the ladies just as well as I can reapers.

Compassion will no longer be seen as a spiritual luxury for a contemplative few; rather it will be viewed as a social necessity for the entire human family.

Donald Trump is the head of a global power.

As I've said before, free money scams are a problem.

When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.

If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it well. That's just my character, that's just the way it is with me.

What developed in my early days was the attitude to start attacking the thing I was scared of