Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside.
I think I would have died if there hadn't been the women's movement.
When I was growing up, I always read horror books, while my sister read romance novels.
Change, when it comes, cracks everything open.
Two or three things I know for sure, and one is that I'd rather go naked than wear the coat the world has made for me.
Fiction is a piece of truth that turns lies to meaning.
I tell my students you have an absolute right to write about people you know and love. You do. But the kicker is you have a responsibility to make the characters large enough that you will not have sinned against them.
Independent presses and bookstores give access to literature specific to a place. Readers can find stories they need.
One of the strengths I derive from my class background is that I am accustomed to contempt.
The horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudice is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives there must be others whose lives are truncated and brutal.
Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is that if we are not beautiful to each other, we cannot know beauty in any form.
When I saw him speak here before, I could look into the audience and see people who look like him laughing at things I didn't know the references to. There is an intimacy between Chicago writers and the population of this city that I find really wonderful. It's warm and it's welcoming. It's a little like going to a Baptist church. They know when to say 'Amen'.
Picture Quotes to Inspire and Delight