It was actually a women's writing group I belonged to in graduate school that gave me the courage to move from poetry to fiction.

I think coldness is chic among writers, and particularly ironic coldness. What is absolutely not allowable is sadness. People will do anything rather than to acknowledge that they are sad.

Sometimes I would see them not as mementos of the blissful hours but as the tangible precious debris of the storm raging in my soul.

My mother was a feminist and a divorcee who worked. She was very smart.

Adam was a super being when God created him...

Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.

Change happens when you understand what you want to change so deeply that there is no reason to do anything but act in your own best interest.

Down sank the great red sun, and in golden, glimmering vapors Veiled the light of his face, like the Prophet descending from Sinai.

It takes most of us a long time to learn our craft. So keep at it. Don't give up.

I also talk a lot in Deeper Reading about the importance that confusion plays. When my students come to me, they think confusion is bad. They are wrong. Confusion is the place where learning occurs.

Sexual harassment legislation in its present form makes all men unequal to all women.

Artists to my mind are the real architects of change.