Novelist

I have a photograph of myself when I was 2 years of age, and I don't recognize the person in the photograph. She doesn't look anything like me, and I can't find any trace of her in me physically. And yet I remember her very, very well - even her anxiety.

What distinguished my life from my brother's is that my mother didn't like me. When I became a woman, I seemed to repel her.

Race is not particularly interesting to me. Power is. Who has power and who doesn't. Slavery interests me because it's an incredible violation that has not stopped. It's necessary to talk about that. Race is a diversion.

Children like their mothers especially to be standing still and watching them, even if they are sleeping. At least that's how I felt. There's nothing wrong with the self-interest of children; it's just the way they are.

I have a sense of destiny because of my mother, who was an extraordinary person but a terrible candidate for mother. She was like the god Cronus, who gave birth to his children in the morning and then ate them at night.

Tomorrow exists even though I may not exist in it.

I like cooking, but I think someone else ought to do the dishes.

I think life is difficult and that's that. I am not at all - absolutely not at all - interested in the pursuit of happiness. I am not interested in the pursuit of positivity. I am interested in pursuing a truth, and the truth often seems to be not happiness but its opposite.

When I write nonfiction, it's always absolutely true. There will be no moment in my nonfiction where I have made something up and have to apologize to the bullying hostess of a talk show.

Children like their mothers especially to be standing still and watching them, even if they are sleeping. At least that's how I felt. There's nothing wrong with the self-interest of children; it's just the way they are.

Tomorrow exists even though I may not exist in it.

When once I got to America I fell in love with hippie culture, and I've always wanted to live in the country and grow organic vegetables.

I think in many ways the problem that my writing would have with an American reviewer is that Americans find difficulty very hard to take. They are inevitably looking for a happy ending.

At the time I was taught to read, it was an Eden-like time of my life. My mother adored me. Everyone adored me. So I associate reading with enormous pleasure.

One of the things reading does, it makes your loneliness manageable if you are an essentially lonely person.

I'll read anything. In fact, I'll read while I'm doing other things, which is not a good idea.

I was given a dictionary when I was seven, and I read it because I had nothing else to read. I read it the way you read a book.

At the time I was taught to read, it was an Eden-like time of my life. My mother adored me. Everyone adored me. So I associate reading with enormous pleasure.

I've never gotten used to winter and never will.

I can write anywhere. I actually wrote more than I ever did when I had small children. My children were never a hindrance.