I think, life is miserable.

My ambition was to live like music.

I didn't like horses when I was a kid.

I focus more on the spiritual or psychic gains.

It's true that your environment influences how you write.

Stories mimic life like certain insects mimic leaves and twigs.

The hurts of childhood that must be avenged: so small and so huge.

I didn't want to keep forcing myself to grind out book after book.

The only way to know whats possible is to venture past impossible.

Anne Frank's diary made a very big impression on me at age 12 or so.

Stories are the rich, unseen underlayer of the most ordinary moments.

I found the world extraordinarily strange, having first left home at 15.

I wanted to communicate and connect. I simply didn't seem able to do it.

Somebody once said to me if you want to be understood, don't write fiction.

Somebody once said to me, 'If you want to be understood, don't write fiction.'

Three writers together would be a nightmare of obstreperous self-consciousness.

When you're writing a story, you're creating something of an artificial ending.

I believe that the truest parts of people can be buried, and for many different reasons.

The art of integrating the ego and the impulse for empathy in a dynamic call and response.

I had a strong conviction that there was something out there in the world that was wonderful.

I think women who are very creative and giving members of society can be respected and accepted.

I remember the time I said, 'I don't think you love yourself. You need to learn to love yourself.'

When looking out the window and watching the water becomes a drama, then literally everything is a drama.

Writing requires an intense inner focus, and sometimes you need to express outward, physically or socially.

I think politics are a part of life, so I have no resistance to it, but it's not something I set out to do.

I think a woman who commits adultery, is not sympathetic in our culture - or in many cultures, let's face it.

I think people hold back all kinds of things. And in a way, they just want to be nice. They want to be civil.

You can't tell an 18-year-old to keep it down and turn off Britney Spears or whatever it is that they listen to.

Partly, I'm worried that no one is saying anything because they are afraid of being seen as politically correct.

I didn't start thinking about what I wanted to do professionally until I was 17. I was a hippie, but I did write.

I know several women my age who are really poor...because they spent most of their energy taking care of children.

Sometimes I decide I don't want to write because it isn't the thing for me to be doing right then, and I go do something else.

Of course there’s something there; unfortunately, there’s always something ‘there.’ Something you will one day be sorry you saw.

I don't know if I can say exactly what I seek in books, but one of them would be to deepen and expand my understanding of the world.

I remember back in the '90s, I used to feel criticized by women for not having children. Like there must be something wrong with me.

I had really wanted adventure. At the time that I ran away, lots of kids ran away from home. It was something of a social phenomenon.

I think it actually started in my late thirties. I started changing psychologically, and it was difficult to translate that into my writing.

What are you thinking?” She asks. -That you are beautiful. That not everyone could see it. I almost became the kind of person who could not.

The first person to blow up my fashion consciousness was a 14-year-old girl named Sandrine. She was the most beautiful human I had ever seen.

For two people to satisfy everything each needs for their entire lives is a tall order. Some couples may be equipped to do this. Some are not.

I feel I'm often misunderstood by critics. People project a lot or exaggerate the subjective fragility simply because it's frightening to them.

I think if a woman is very happy with herself and at ease with her choices, it goes a long way toward making other people feel at ease with her.

My first and strongest memories about perfume come from childhood, from my mother, and they are a complex blend of her private and public selves.

I think once you write fiction, you put it out, and it can be interpreted in a variety of ways, some of which are going to be shocking to the writer.

I loved to read and would read anything that roused my interest, whether it was below my age level or above it, even if I could barely make sense of it.

Something like riding a horse - which I've recently started doing - requires courage, especially for me, as I started out being actually scared of horses.

I became very aware of how important it is to connect with children - possibly for the children, if they're in the mood for that - but certainly for the adults.

I think that with the proliferation of writing programs, people tend to forget that you also have to get used to working alone, and you have to be your own support.

Most women at retirement have significantly less money than men, and they still get paid less than men. I'm sure that in my reptile brain I'm quite conscious of this.

Whenever young writers ask me for advice, I always say you have to be able to take a lot of rejection because, unless you're very lucky, that's what's going to happen.

Share This Page