what I have written—and how I came to write it—is most powerfully what I am. - Hortense Calisher

I think you write better about women if you don’t write about women exclusively. As with any subject.

When we test out our own insights on how other people might feel, the testing ground is ourselves. Our views on anything from politics to landscape are tinctured with our personality.

I don’t want the critic head taking over, as it quickly can. But it can be instructive. I discover what I think about literature. And critique by other writers is the best literary talk.