Creative work is incredibly difficult, and that is where the tests lie.

I am not interested in genres. I am interested in doing the best work I can in whatever medium.

I don't believe in happy endings.

I don't read reviews because by then it's too late - whatever anyone says, the book won't change. It is written.

I don't understand why people talk of art as a luxury when it's a mind-altering possibility.

I don't write for any group. I write to bring about a change in consciousness.

I had relationships with men as well as women. I wasn't choosing; I didn't think I had to.

I hated historical novels with fluttering cloaks.

I like to think the price I paid by being open about my private life helped.

I never cared about money.

I never wanted children. If I'd been deeply in love with a man and he'd wanted children, it would have been difficult.

I think heterosexuality and homosexuality are a kind of psychosis, and the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I think people deceive themselves about themselves, particularly as they get older.

I think we still believe that ambition is for boys.

I wanted to cause trouble, but I know now it stays with you.

I wanted to invent myself as a fictional character. And I did, and it has caused a great deal of confusion.

I wanted to write a new fable and see how many rules you could break.

If we make anything that lasts, it outlives us.

If you continually write and read yourself as a fiction, you can change what's crushing you.

In my subconscious, my books were part of a single emotional journey.