When I read Jerome D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" that was the first time I felt my mind blow open. I thought that book was speaking to me. I was 12 or 13 when I read that. I read everything on my mother's bookshelves.

And then I understood that she had no idea what she'd done to my family. She thought love and hatred were equal.

Some fates are guaranteed, no matter who tries to intervene.

I wonder how a lioness will manage in a dovecote. Can you put away your teeth and claws?

Still anyone who trusts a serpent deserves its bite. The wise see a creature for what it is, not what it says it may be.

What else is there to write about than love and loss?

When I read Jerome D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" that was the first time I felt my mind blow open. I thought that book was speaking to me. I was 12 or 13 when I read that. I read everything on my mother's bookshelves.