When somebody asks me what I do, I don't think I'd say critic. I say writer.

There are things in American culture that want to wipe the class distinction. Blue jeans. Ready-made clothes. Coca-Cola.

Henry Miller wrote novels, but he calls his protagonist Henry, often Henry Miller, and his books are in this gray area between memoir and novel.

I long for the raised voice, the howl of rage or love.

I think the pattern of my essays is, A funny thing happened to me on my way through Finnegans Wake.

Gertrude Stein really thought of Hemingway as frail. He almost married Stein.

The text is merely one of the contexts of a piece of literature, its lexical or verbal one, no more or less important than the sociological, psychological, historical, anthropological or generic.

Raymond Carver is good. I think he'll be appreciated more and more. He's an easy writer to imitate.

I have, I admit, a low tolerance for detached chronicling and cool analysis.

My assignment is what every writer's assignment is: tell the truth of his own time.

The black situation has changed. They finally realized they're Americans.

As a young girl, I allowed my self-esteem to be determined by others’ opinions, and I devoted incredible energy tuning into how everyone else felt.

What people don't understand is like when water gets polluted, it's an entire aquifer. There's a whole fascinating world that exists underneath our feet that we don't see, therefore we don't relate.

You may say, 'That's naïve of you,' and maybe it is, but in my mind, I'm celebrating every kind of woman. That's what a creative person does.

There's no doubt that we have, as we always do in the nation, reacted to the reality of 911 here in the country as an aviation incident. There are other vulnerabilities to be dealt with.

A true love for God must begin with a delight in His holiness, and not with a delight in any other attribute; for no other attribute is truly lovely without this.

I'm usually the last person to know.

Healthful whole foods improve our brain function as well.

It is one of the worst things of sentiment that the voice grows to be more important than the words, and the speaker than that what is spoken.

Listening to the inner voice - trusting the inner voice - is one of the most important lessons of leadership.