The conversation of kisses. Subtle, engrossing, fearless, transforming.

You want in all cases for the story to get through the writing.

I used to feel for years and years and years that I was very remiss not to have written a novel and I would question people who wrote novels and try to find out how they did it and how they had got past page 30. Then, with the approach of old age, I began to just think: “Well, lucky I can do anything at all.

Few people, very few, have a treasure, and if you do you must hang onto it. You must not let yourself be waylaid, and have it taken from you.

It's as if tendencies that seem most deeply rooted in our minds, most private and singular, have come in as spores on the prevailing wind, looking for any likely place to land, any welcome.

Now i no longer believe that people's secrets are defined and communicable, or their feelings full-blown and easy to recognize.

Love removes the world for you, and just as surely when it's going well as when it's going badly.