nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be.

I exaggerated even before I began to exaggerate, because it's true — nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be.

I assemble stories-me and a hundred million other people-at the sentence level. Not by coming up with a sweeping story line.

What I think," Chatty says, "is that if a man loves a woman more than a woman loves a man, then they're even.

All those years on the psychiatrist's couch and suddenly the couch is moving. Good God, she is on that couch when the big one hits. Maidy didn't tell you, but you know what her doctor said? She sprang from the couch and said, "My God, was that an earthquake?" The doctor said this: "Did it feel like an earthquake to you?

Wear your heart on the page, and people will read to find out how you solved being alive.

I think of the chimp, the one with the talking hands.