One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.

When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.

When we talk about understanding, surely it takes place only when the mind listens completely - the mind being your heart, your nerves, your ears - when you give your whole attention to it.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

Learning, while at school, that the charge for the education of girls was the same as that for boys, and that, when they became teachers, women received only half as much as men for their services, the injustice of this distinction was so apparent.

But the thing I felt most strongly about, and put at the end of one of the prison diaries, was education.

I started writing stories when I was six years old. I was a very shy kid, extremely shy, and I had a fabulous first-grade teacher who told me to write.

I grew up with a strong Spanish influence. I tried to learn flamenco when I was younger. But it's like my teacher said: 'It takes a lifetime to learn flamenco.'