My generation of young female writers discovered that we could dictate the form and content of our own fiction.

You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.

The stones themselves are thick with history, and those cats that dash through the alleyways must surely be the ghosts of the famous dead in feline disguise.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.

Ambivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own.

Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.

How wonderful to have someone to blame! How wonderful to live with one's nemesis! You may be miserable, but you feel forever in the right.

My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.

Nobody's ever asked me to a party before, as a friend. Is that why you dyed your eyebrow, for the party? Should I do mine too?

I may have not done History in high school but War cannot be ended by endless talks, only Cold War.

Of course, you were crowned with laurel in the beginning, your gold hair was wreathed with laurel, but the gold is thinning and the laurel has withered. Face it – pitiful monster.

They're only truly great who are truly good.

If I had to do it over again, I'd probably play the game the same way.

Those who take oaths to politically powerful secret societies cannot be depended on for loyalty to a democratic republic.

The elasticity of imagination and compassion is what writing and reading promote.

Life comes only from life.

I think kids today are going to look at their Facebook postings like bad tattoos one day.

A library's ideal function is to be a little bit like a bouquiniste's stall, a place for trouvailles.