My Job Is Writing. I Get Paid

Growing Up In The Fifties And Sixties, I Can Only Remember Knowing One Child, Ever, Whose Parents Got A Divorce, And Hardly Any Whose Mother "worked" At Anything Besides Raising Her Children.

I Compromised My Ability To Tell My Story, At The Most Basic Level.

[on Home Births:] In A House Where There Had Been Three People, There Were Now Four, Although No One Had Come In The Door.

Although Salinger Had Long Since Cut Me Out Of His Life Completely And Made It Plain That He Had Nothing But Contempt For Me, The Thought Of Becoming The Object Of His Wrath Was More Than I Felt Ready To Take On.

I Do Not Outline. There Are Writers I Know And Count As My Friends Who Certainly Do It The Other Way But For Me Part Of The Adventure Is Not Knowing How It's Going To Turn Out.