I'm watching a romantic play in Plato's cave; half the time I don't believe in it... Other times I'm so addicted I'm one of the mainliners... halluci… - Julia Alvarez

My friend Carol says aging evens out
the advantage of beautiful women
over plain ones. ...
Where are the girls who were beautiful?

Mine was an oral culture, full of storytellers, but reading and writing were not encouraged. (No public libraries, no free press!) Coming to the United States suddenly thrust me into a world where I was an alien, where I spoke the language with an accent. This abrupt and painful “translation” led me to the company of books, the homeland of the imagination where all were welcomed. In trying to master my new language of English, I had to pay attention to words, their little reputations and atmospheres, their exact weights and balances, their smells and sounds and textures…

I like to start the writing day with poetry; like the choir master sounding a note on his pipe, it sets the standard high (“No approximate words in a poem,” Dickinson says) and puts me in the right register. Novels are great for breaks — a reward and relief from the labors of writing.