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.

My grandchildren are fabulous and funny.

What are the sources of poetry? Love and death and the paradox of love and death. All poetry from the beginning is about Eros and Thanatos. Those are the only subjects. And how Eros and Thanatos interweave.

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

Women are individuals in parenting, and why not?

Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.

No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.

Solitude is un-American.

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

Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.

Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.

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.

In a bad marriage, friends are the invisible glue. If we have enough friends, we may go on for years, intending to leave, talking about leaving - instead of actually getting up and leaving.