“...I would never choose a subject for what it means to me. I choose a subject and then what I feel about it, what it means, begins to unfold. ”
“I did best when I had least truth for my subjects.”
“I did not choose to write 'The Pope, my Brother and I', it chose me.”
“I had never been into society; for me the world was the enclosure of the college and the seminary. I had a vague knowledge that there was a something called woman, but I never dwelt upon the subject; I was absolutely innocent. I saw my infirm old mother only twice a year; that was the extent of my connection with the outside world.”
“Who chose burial monuments? Were the wishes of the deceased taken into consideration? It was a subject I'd never considered before.”