It is living, not thinking, as a feminist that has become the challenge.

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.

Spirituality is not about being fixed

Do not look down with disdain on what Christ spent so much to achieve for you.

He was far scarier than any ghost could be. He was real, and he was a monster.

Perspective-changing events can have many parts. One part can be a tense, laughter-filled promise. Another part can have no laughter at all.

Take risks: if you win you will be happy if you lose you will be wise.

Dirty Harry, for example. Clint Eastwood was not a rogue cop. He was a maverick cop, but he was a good guy.

What we refer to as yoga is just a technology to make your energies function by choice, not by compulsion.

I call it the Etch A Sketch life. Every few years, you should shake that thing up.

My Poor Dad Often Said, 'I'd Rather Be Happy Than Rich.' My Rich Dad Said, 'Why Not Be Both?'

Chess is so deep, I simply feel lost.