Whether I'm critically well received, whether or not I sell books - of course it becomes progressively harder to get them published - nevertheless, i….

Brownstein's is a fresh and jaunty voice, with a jazz snap all his own..

The novel is never really in the first draft. The novel really happens in the revisions..

I think it's true about people now being closer to their parents, since the '60s, really. The parents are no longer from a different planet, the 1950….

Most of my life is just spent lying in bed. I mean, it's enough pressure to write the words. Do I need to use the additional energy exerted by sittin….

I think powerful women don't care whether or not they're liked..

Whether you're acting or you're writing, your skin is just basically ripped off and you're putting yourself out there. At least the acting part comes….

With publicity comes humiliation..

Crimes, sins, nightmares, hunks of hair: it was surprising how many of them has something to dispose of. The more I charged, the easier it was for th….

In my writing I wanted to be liked for writing really unlikeable stuff. There were books that people, particularly women, hated so much. They said, "….

I feel like I sort of missed the eighties. At the time, we didn’t know we were having fun, which is probably the way it always is..

Why would I want to read something about somebody that's just a really nice, decent person who overcomes terrible trials? That's not how life is to m….

I'm writing what I want to write. But it's almost an act of rebellion on my part. Because as a person, I've always wanted to be very likeable, and I ….

If you want to be a writer, all you need is a piece of paper and a pencil, and I had a manual typewriter. It doesn't cost money to write. It costs mo….

On bad days, I think I'd like to be a plastic surgeon who goes to Third World countries and operates on children in villages with airlifts, and then ….

I don't want my novel to be like Madame Bovary, finely crafted with the life edited out of it. I want my novel to be like a friend telling me a story….

Long after the bomb falls and you and your good deeds are gone, cockroaches will still be here, prowling the streets like armored cars..

Fame is really great in a lot of ways, you know? People are a lot nicer to you. Like, the more famous you are, the more free presents you get. And in….

I was like a social worker for lepers. My clients had a chunk of their body they wanted to give away; for a price I was there to receive it..

I think in a lot of ways, writing, when you're really in there, is like being an actress because you're in somebody else's head..

I think the sixties must have been quite a lot of fun..