What I like about fairy tales is the language and the matter-of-fact way of introducing magic, where it's accepted that a fox could talk or a gate could just appear in a wall. I think fairy tales are so psychological.

I read "The Group" by Mary McCarthy. It had tons of sex in it, or so I thought at the time.

Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" was extremely important to me.

My grief was cold. It was nothing to share. It was nothing to speak about, nothing to feel.

Every time someone forgets, someone else disappears,' my brother wrote.

She didn't like being twelve. It felt like someplace between who she'd been and who she was about to be. It felt like no place at all.

Always keep mint on your windowsill in August, to ensure that buzzing flies will stay outside, where they belong. Don't think the summer is over, even when roses droop and turn brown and the stars shift position in the sky. Never presume August is a safe or reliable time of the year.