One form of loneliness is to have a memory and no one to share it with.

There is no neutrality. There is only greater or lesser awareness of one's bias.

The literature of women's lives is a tradition of escapees, women who have lived to tell the tale.

an autobiography held out the promise of hearing truths that only friends confess to one another but are knowledge you need to live.

Perhaps that is what love is -- the momentary or prolonged refusal to think of another person in terms of power.

I believe we need literature, which, by allowing us to experience more fully, to imagine more fully, enables us to live more freely.

biographies are a little like marriages: You only have room in your life for one or two.

the challenge of nonfiction is to marry art and truth.

The writer… begins in confusion and nothingness and writes his way into clarity.

Every reading is a misreading.

Some friends gladly stay, some move away. Some come and go, but their affections grow. While some, I recall, are not friends at all.

For love to flourish there has to be trust. Promises don’t matter as much aspersonal choice.

It occurred to her that nobody really knew what anybody else was upset about, and that seemed like a terrible thing.

you may be right, I may be crazy, but it just might be a lunatic you're looking for

I always was a funny guy, the class clown. I had a very funny dad and an extremely funny grandmother.

Leading in a complex world means recognizing the simple things you can do to make things better.

Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy.

I don't think we really gave barbarism a fair try.

There is a deity within us who breathes that divine fire by which we are animated.

I think that the biggest challenge for me making films is how much of your life you give to something. Shooting the film requires 14-hour days, six days a week.