When we talk in company we lose our unique tone of voice, and this leads us to make statements which in no way correspond to our real thoughts.
Only bad writers think that their work is really good.
If you try to control it too much, the book is dead. You have to let it fall apart quite early on and let it start doing its own thing. And that takes nerve, not to panic that the book you were going to write is not the book you will have at the end of the day.
I am interested in silences
We have lost the art of public tenderness, these small gestures of wiping and washing; we have forgotten how abjectly the body welcomes a formal touch.
Cats, I always think, only jump into your lap to check if you are cold enough, yet, to eat.
I do not think we remember our family in any real sense. We live in them instead
I've always been pretty confident. I grew up in a family of strong women, so I was always taught to be proud of who I am, the way I am.
Racism is a common thread among people of color, even though each experience with it is different.
I'm a really hectic dreamer, I never wake up not out of a dream and there's loads going on, lots of action, big blockbuster dreams, they're all major enterprises.
He smoked a cigarette, standing in the dark and listening to her undress. She made sea sounds; something flapped like a sail; there was the creak of ropes; then he heard the wave-against-a-wharf smack of rubber on flesh. Her call for him to hurry was a sea-moan, and when he lay beside her, she heaved, tidal, moon-driven.