“People have the right to call themselves whatever they like. That doesn't bother me. It's other people doing the calling that bothers me.”

“When I meet a woman who attracts me, I prefer women,' she said. 'And when I meet a man who attracts me, I prefer men.''You mean you haven't made up your mind yet.''I mean exactly what I said. I told you you wouldn't like it. Most people who ask want me definitely on one side or the other.”

“I'm Valerie Rye,' she said, savoring the words. 'It's all right for you to talk to me.”

“Writing is difficult. You do it all alone without encouragement and without any certainty that you'll ever be published or paid or even that you'll be able to finish the particular work you've begun. It isn't easy to persist amid all that. [...] Sometimes when I'm interviewed, the interviewer either compliments me on my 'talent', my 'gift' or asks me how I discovered it. [...] I used to struggle to answer this politely, to explain that I didn't believe much in writing talent. People who want to write either do it or they don't. At last I began to say that my most important talent - or habit - was persistence. Without it, I would have given up writing long before I finished my first novel. It's amazing what we can do if we simply refuse to give up.”

“In my years, I have seen that people must be their own gods and make their own good fortune. The bad will come or not come anyway.”

“Could a creature who had to look upon ordinary people literally as food and shelter ever understand how strongly those people valued life?”

“I have a huge and savage conscience that won't let me get away with things.”