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" If a man wishes to truly not be written about, he would do well not to write letters to 18-year-old girls, inviting them into his life. "

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" When people ask what I write about, that's what I tell them: 'The drama of human relationships.' I'm not even close to running out of material. "

" I believe every one of us possesses a fundamental right to tell our own story. "

" The process of writing has always started for me when I put myself in a place where no one distracts me. "

" If people choose to live their life in a way that does not confront the more troubling aspects of their experience, that's fine, if it works for them. But it will probably make them uncomfortable if they come up against somebody like me. So they just shouldn't! They shouldn't read my work! "

" The portrait of my parents is a complicated one, but lovingly drawn. "

" Nothing like being visible, publishing one's work, and speaking openly about one's life, to disabuse the world of the illusion of one's perfection and purity. "

" Those who rhapsodize about the ease and joy of childhood have perhaps forgotten what it's like to be 12 years old. "

" I compromised my ability to tell my story, at the most basic level. "

" One life is not enough for me. I want to go lots of places. "

" 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. "

" The silence was part of the story I wanted to tell. "

" It troubles me that people speak about writing for money as ugly and distasteful. "

" I wonder what it is that the people who criticize me for telling this story truly object to: is it that I have dared to tell the story? Or that the story turns out not to be the one they wanted to hear? "

" For 25 years, I did take my responsibilities as a pleaser of others sufficiently seriously. "

" Women writers have been told, forever, that our stories were not valuable. Not as valuable as men's stories about wars, business, power. "

" If I told you about all the stories I don't tell, I would be violating the very boundaries I set for myself. "

" I think of myself as a realistic writer, not a creator of soap opera or melodrama. "

" A good home must be made, not bought. In the end, it's not track lighting or a sun room that brings light into a kitchen. "

" A person who deserves my loyalty receives it. "

" There is a theme that runs through my work, and that is: the toxic property of keeping secrets. "

" It is not the task of a reader to please her subjects. "

" 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 had known there had been a serial killer on Mount Tamalpais, and it felt so incongruous in such a beautiful, peaceful spot. "

" My job is writing. I get paid to do it. When was the last time you heard someone challenge a doctor for making money off of cancer? "

" I have long observed that the act of writing is viewed, by some, as an elite and otherworldly act, all the more so if a person isn't paid for what she writes. "

" Long after Salinger sent me away, I continued to believe his standards and expectations were the best ones. "

" I was giving a speech one time, and the woman who introduced me said, 'Well, she used to be J. D. Salinger's girlfriend. I thought, 'God, is that all I've been?' I didn't want to be reduced to that. "

" It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself. "

" The vehemence with which certain critics have chosen not simply to criticize what I've written, but to challenge my writing this story at all, speaks of what the book is about: fear of disapproval. "

" To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it. "