I was like a social worker for lepers. My clients had a chunk of their body they wanted to give away; for a price I was there to receive it.

Long after the bomb falls and you and your good deeds are gone, cockroaches will still be here, prowling the streets like armored cars.

With publicity comes humiliation.

The older a woman gets, the more invisible you become.

Most of my life is just spent lying in bed. I mean, it's enough pressure to write the words. Do I need to use the additional energy exerted by sitting up?

The novel is never really in the first draft. The novel really happens in the revisions.

Whether I'm critically well received, whether or not I sell books - of course it becomes progressively harder to get them published - nevertheless, it's what I do, every day.

Why would I want to read something about somebody that's just a really nice, decent person who overcomes terrible trials? That's not how life is to me.

I feel like I sort of missed the eighties. At the time, we didn’t know we were having fun, which is probably the way it always is.

I think the sixties must have been quite a lot of fun.

Brownstein's is a fresh and jaunty voice, with a jazz snap all his own.

People do change, sometimes we just choose not to notice it.

The best way to be loved, is to love yourself.

No American conservative has ever argued that the government should never be involved in peoples' lives. That is anarchy, and we don't argue for that.

I'm dancing to the music of the madness inside me.

The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.

When I was young, I kept a diary for about 10 years and I had to write in it every day. Even on days when nothing seemed to happen, I made myself think of something to put in it.

I am a great believer that all the primary research has to be done before principle writing begins. I'm a huge advocate of plotting.

The one thing that’s missing, but that will soon be developed, is a reliable e-cash, a method whereby on the Internet you can transfer funds from A to B, without A knowing B or B knowing A.

Being a stepmother has worked out very well for me. I love my stepchildren very much.

Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.