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

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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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

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

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

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

" Many women my age have known the experience of giving up crucial parts of themselves to please the man they love. "

" 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. "

" More than any other setting - more than battlefields or boardrooms or a spaceship headed for intergalactic travel - I'll put my money on the family to provide an endless source of comedy, tragedy and intrigue. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Teach a child to play solitaire, and she'll be able to entertain herself when there's no one around. Teach her tennis, and she'll know what to do when she's on a court. But raise her to feel comfortable in nature, and the whole planet is her home. "

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

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

" You write about what you know, and you write about what you want to know. "

" I continued to protect him with my silence. "

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

" 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. "

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

" Some literary types subscribe to the notion that being a writer like Salinger entitles a person to remain free of the standards that might apply to mere mortals. "

" I've had some wonderful successes and some extreme disappointments in my career and my life. "

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