We immortals aren't misers -- we don't hoard! Such things are pointless.

There's blood, a taste I remember. It tastes of orange Popsicle, penny gumballs, red licorice, gnawed hair, dirty ice.

I believe that everyone else my age is an adult whereas I am merely in disguise.

I'll make you mine, lovers said in old books. They never said, I'll make you me.

I must have been grown up. So I didn't notice.

If you're a woman writer, sometime, somewhere, you will be asked: Do you think of yourself as a writer first, or as a woman first? Look out. Whoever asks this hates and fears both writing and women.

Fear has a smell, as love does.

There's something to be said for hunger: at least it lets you know you're still alive.

I am a believer in sensible choices, so different from many of my own. Also in sensible names for children.

At the very least we want a witness. We can't stand the idea of our own voices falling silent finally, like a radio running down.

The best way of being kind to bears is not to be very close to them.

I took care not to react. It's a skill, not reacting.

Science is not something that exists apart from human beings. It's one of the things we do as human beings, and we always have done science and technology in some form.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality.

The truth, it seems, is not just what you find when you open a door: it is itself a door, which the poet is always on the verge of going through.

The gods often mumble.

Nothing helps gluttony along so well as eating food you don't have to pay for yourself.

What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.

If a stranger taps you on the ass and says, How's the little lady today! you will probably cringe. But if he's an American, he's only being friendly.

Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another they are not cute. They are life-sized.