Jeanette Winterson

Naked is the best disguise.

Writers have to have a knack for listening. I need to be able to hear what is being said to me by the voices I create.

Art saved me; it got me through my depression and self-loathing, back to a place of innocence.

Anything outside marriage seems like freedom and excitement.

I had relationships with men as well as women. I wasn't choosing; I didn't think I had to.

Academics love to make theories about a body of work, but each book consumes the writer and is the sum of his or her world.

I am a writer who happens to love women. I am not a lesbian who happens to write.

I hate the word lesbian; it tells you nothing; its only purpose is to inflame.

Ordinary professionalism and 20 years' experience can accomplish a lot, but it can't access the hidden places.

I like to think the price I paid by being open about my private life helped.

Your weak point is the open, vulnerable place where you can always be hurt. Love, in all its aspects, opens the self so fully.

However it is debased or misinterpreted, love is a redemptive feature. To focus on one individual so that their desires become superior to yours is a very cleansing experience.