I Wrote To Make Sense Out Of

I Did Not Always Know I Would Be A Writer. Until I Had A Room Of My Own, I Did Not Write Much At All - No More Than Any Other Child Who Read A Lot Of Books. I Began To Write Fiction And Poetry When I First Had A Room That Was Truly My Own With A Door That Shut And Some Measure, However Fragile, Of Privacy.

Every Jewish Holiday Has A Religious Significance, A Historical Significance, And A Relevance To The Time Of Year In The Natural Calendar Of The Seasons And Trees And Growing Things, As Well As A Personal Significance. So You Are Always Looking Backward, Outward, Inward And Forward.

I Am My Mother's Daughter,... I Am Her Only Novel.

We're Herded Into Schools And Terrified Into Behaving. Taught How We're Supposed To Pretend To Be, Taught To Parrot All Kinds Of Nonsense At The Flick Of A Switch, Taught To Keep Our Heads Down And Our Elbows In And Shut Off Our Minds And Shut Off Our Sex. We Learn We Can't Even Piss When We Have To. That's How We Learn To Be Plastic And Dumb.

Every Poet Has A Certain Amount Of "stuff." That's What You Draw From For Imagery. The More Stuff You Know Well, Not Simply Intellectually But Sensually, Emotionally, Intimately, The Wider The Pool From Which You Draw.