“I believe that books must go through a fairly slow birthing process...”

“I believe in the devil, in the Powers of Darkness, Lawford, as firmly as I believe he and they are powerless – in the long run. They – what shall we say? - have surrendered their intrinsicality. You can just go through evil, as you can go through a sewer, and come out on the other side. A loathsome process too.”

“I'm beginning to perceive motherhood as a long, slow letting go, of which birth is just the first step.”

“Autobiography is not important. Authenticity is important. The writer must fire herself through the text, be the molten stuff that welds together disparate elements. I believe there is always exposure, vulnerability, in the writing process, which is not to say it is either confessional or memoir. Simply, it is real.”

“So through no rational process whatsoever I was the leader, And I had no idea what I was going to say.”

“Inch by inch it's all a cinch, by the yard it's hard. Go for it -- no matter how slow or long the process seems at first.”