That's why there are ten gates to pass through before you reach the garden. If life were easy there would be one gate. There would be no gates at all.

I feel more influenced in my own work by dreams than I do by other writers' works in a way. Or by popular culture, movies - what else is there to write about than love and loss?

Burn me. Drown me. Tell me lies. I will still be who I am.

Never look at other people's bad fortune,' my mother said. 'If you do, it will come back to find you instead of its rightful owner.

Another world must surely exist somewhere one where she would be known in some deep way that was far beyond words.

That was the way love was, invisible, there whether or not you wanted to see it or admit to it.

We are only an instant, that's true. But we are eternal.