Guilt implanted at a tender age is not easy to destroy. A weed, it sprouts in unexpected places.

Men have jobs, while women have Roles: Mother, Wife, Goddess, Temptress, etc. That's probably why it's so hard for women to rewrite the rules. You're not just changing a job description, but an ancient myth. You're revising the Bible, Poetry, Legend and Psychoanalytic Scripture.

[On the Barbie doll:] Her values, while somewhat Yuppified, are not so bad. Look at GI Joe. His only wardrobe is fatigues, he spends all his time trying to kill people, or getting his own innards splashed across the landscape. His big hobby is death.

I enjoy the process of writing. The torment comes in getting my bottom on the chair and in front of the typewriter.

What we've done, it seems to me, is allow women to get older, but not to age.

Smell is the closest thing human beings have to a time machine.