No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.

Perhaps all artists were, in a sense, housewives: tenders of the earth household.

Poetry is what we turn to in the most emotional moments of our life - when a beloved friend dies, when a baby is born or when we fall in love.

Where is Hollywood located? Chiefly between the ears. In that part of the American brain lately vacated by God.

Friends love misery, in fact. Sometimes, especially if we are too lucky or too successful or too pretty, our misery is the only thing that endears us to our friends.

All my forebears worked for a living. My grandfather painted portraits. My mother too. My aunt painted seascapes.

I never became a writer for the money. I am a poet first. Even getting published is a miracle for poets.

I've never been able to control my public image.

It's hard to do fiction and nonfiction simultaneously.

Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared.

Singularity shows something wrong in the mind.

Solitude is un-American.

The trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

Women are individuals in parenting, and why not?

Women are not the richer sex. Women are not equal in society.

At certain historic moments, grandparents took on childrearing responsibilities. In many cultures, they still do. Chinese grandparents who are able to retire at 55 are seen all over Beijing bouncing grandbabies. In the United States, we can't afford to retire at 55.

I thought to spend my declining years writing poetry and teaching - but that won't pay the Bergdorf's bill. I think I'll move to somewhere life is cheaper.

In a bad marriage, friends are the invisible glue. If we have enough friends, we may go on for years, intending to leave, talking about leaving - instead of actually getting up and leaving.

My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.

Sadly, because of the enormous gap between rich and poor, some mothers can afford helpers, but many can't. Those who can would be kinder to refrain from criticizing other women.