Naturally, my stories are about women – I’m a woman. I don’t know what the term is for men who write mostly about men. I’m not always sure what is meant by ‚feminist.‘ In the beginning, I used to say, ‚Well, of course I’m a feminist.‘ But if it means that I follow a kind of feminist theory, or know anything about it, then I’m not.

Eating words has never given me indigestion.

In fairy tales the bad guy is very easy to spot. The bad guy is always wearing a black cape so you always know who he is.

I think that feminists have definitely underestimated the role that women have had historically. I think I would be insecure if I were to be a man; there’s so much pressure on you.

As a novelist, you could say that I am dreaming while I am awake, and every day I can continue with yesterday’s dream. Because it is a dream, there are so many contradictions and I have to adjust them to make the story work. But, in principle, the original dream does not change.

What is the use of writing plays, what is the use of writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds chaos itself into a race of gods.

You know, as a writer, I’m more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

The battle for women’s rights has been largely won.

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

You do get certain publications in the States where, if things don’t go according to plan, they flip the story and it becomes very negative.

There’s no such thing as perfect writing, just like there’s no such thing as perfect despair.

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.

No, it’s not a very good story – its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.

People ask me if there are going to be stories of Harry Potter as an adult. Frankly, if I wanted to, I could keep writing stories until Harry is a senior citizen, but I don’t know how many people would actually want to read about a 65 year old Harry still at Hogwarts playing bingo with Ron and Hermione.

I knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.

Sick children, if not too shy to speak, will always express this wish. They invariably prefer a story to be told to them, rather than read to them.

Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With each new work, I move up a step and discover something new inside me.

It is not women’s liberation, it is women’s and men’s liberation.

You can tell the strength of a nation by the women behind its men.

Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms and men in love.

Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then.

Being beautiful is not so fun when you’re in a business with all men.

And as a writer, one of the things that I’ve always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space. Because that’s what we’re supposed to do. Get under your skin, and make you react.

I never have an intended audience. I just write, you know.

Sexism is real in this country.

Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy – which many believe goes hand in hand with it – will be dead as well.

Writing is fun – at least mostly. I write for four hours every day. After that I go running. As a rule, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). That’s easy to manage.

Lena Waithe won an Emmy for writing while starring on the Netflix show ‚Master of None,‘ but it might be more accurate to call her a Master of Everything.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.

I don’t know if I officially proofread my father’s book, but I read it. I did get some conception of grammar in general from that.

Writing has always had that tactile quality for me. It’s a physical experience.

Men want to make women happy.

My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady and the other was to be independent, and the law was something most unusual for those times because for most girls growing up in the ’40s, the most important degree was not your B.A. but your M.R.S.

I love that I can tell the truth and have people laugh at it.

If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things.

In all seriousness, people think that it’s the ideas that are important. Well, everyone has ideas, all the time. I tend to write mine down and remember them, but at some point you have to apply the bum to the seat and knock out about sixty five thousand words – that’s how long a novel is.

I don’t think about who the audience is for my books.

Sometimes I’ll jot a clever turn of phrase down. Sometimes I’ll just remember it.

Young men and women, your education is ever important – to us, to you, and to God.

A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.

Writing’s just as natural to me as getting up and cooking breakfast.

I never experiment with anything in my books. Experimentation means you don’t know what you’re doing.

When I see a story, I ask: is this something I’d like to be in? Is this something I’d like to see? And if I’d like to see it, would I like to tell it?

Sure, women sportswriters look when they’re in the clubhouse. Read their stories. How else do you explain a capital letter in the middle of a word?

I’ve been asked this question so many times, do you feel you need to write a book for adults? No, I don’t need to write a book for adults.

I was brought up to try to see what was wrong and right it. Since I am a writer, writing is how I right it.

I’m not searching for hard news; I’m not a journalist, but I’m interested in pushing to boundaries of where we can do the kind of stories that we want to do. I mean, it’s a big world and CNN has made it a lot bigger and they haven’t flinched.

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.

I love the women’s movement, and I never thought of it as belonging to any particular segment of the population.

I’ve learned a lot since I was a new mother. My approach to struggle and shame now is to talk to yourself like you’d talk to someone you love and reach out to tell your story.

What I see, what I went through, what a friend of mine may have went through, whatever – I rap about it.

I think a lot of people, including me, clammed up when a civilian asked about battle, about war. It was fashionable. One of the most impressive ways to tell your war story is to refuse to tell it, you know. Civilians would then have to imagine all kinds of deeds of derring-do.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death. They thought nobody can make a living from being a writer in Brazil. They were not wrong.

When I stop working the rest of the day is posthumous. I’m only really alive when I’m writing.

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

I have always enjoyed watching my songs make people cry.

They’ve got this crazy actor who’s 82 years old up there in a suit. I was a mayor, and they’re probably thinking I know how to give a speech, but even when I was mayor I never gave speeches. I gave talks.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – ‚tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

Behind all their personal vanity, women themselves always have an impersonal contempt for woman.

You know those things that you throw the twigs into and it spits them out? That’s what I do. The branches are like life, and I throw them into my head and some of it comes out as humor.