The question of being encouraged or discouraged by this or that event cannot be asked if one is to go on with a certain moral conviction. - Elena Poniatowska

style, as I see it, is not an adornment added to a work. It is more, as Buffon said, that “le style c’est l’homme même”—style is the man himself...That famous line is actually the conclusion of a longer thought—“Writing well consists of thinking, feeling and expressing well, of clarity of mind, soul and taste.” In my own words, I would say that style is a manifestation of the writer’s being, which, of course, changes over time but retains something essential of who he is...One does not develop a style. One develops oneself. Or, perhaps more accurately, one is born with a certain character and life shapes it. And then, if you write or paint or sculpt, you do those things with the person you have ­become. And that is style.

I would like to return to earth because I love life.

We women treasure faces; in fact at any given moment life becomes a single face that we can touch with our lips.