Avoid men who call you Baby, and women who have no friends, and dogs that scratch at their bellies and refuse to lie down at your feet. Wear dark glasses; bathe with lavender oil and cool fresh water. Seek shelter from the sun at noon.

I knew what it was to yearn for a life so distant it seemed that it had never been anything more than a dream.

He was in love, and people in that condition did stupid, unfathomable things. They were all flawed, every single one.

I wasn't quite as certain that I knew her soul. When it came right down to it, I wasn't sure she knew me either.

I have nothing from my childhood. I think you carry those books with you. It's like in [Ray] Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451." Books are outlawed in this future society so people become the book they love by memorizing it.

Every time I finish a book, I forget everything I learned writing it - the information just disappears out of my head

I don't think I make much of a distinction between the 'real' and the 'fantastic.' They both seem to be threads in the same cloth as far as I'm concerned.