Just because you have stopped sinking doesn't mean you're not still underwater.

I know that homes burn and that you should think what to save before they start to. Not because, in the heat of it, everything looks as valuable as everything else. But, because nothing looks worth the bother, not even your life.

I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence.

I had a mother I could only seem to please with verbal accomplishments of some sort or another. She read constantly, so I read constantly. If I used words that might have seemed surprising at a young age, she would recognize that and it would please her.

I do feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentence and then another, you end up with a good story.

I think you would like Warren. He drinks Courvoisier in a Coke can, and has a laugh like you'd find in a cartoon bubble.

My job ... I do nothing, it pays nothing, but - you guessed it - it's better than nothing.