The worst of it is over now, and I can't say that I am glad. Lose that sense of loss--you have gone and lost something else.

When my mother died, my father's early widowhood gave him social cachet he would not have had if they had divorced. He was a bigger catch for the sorrow attached.

nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be.

I could claim any number of high-flown reasons for writing, just as you can explain certain dogs behavior... But maybe, it’s that they’re dog, and that’s what dogs do.

I know when a story is finished when there is not a single thing more I can think to do to it. And since I know at the start what the last line will be, I know when I've reached that point as logically as I can that it's finished. As for the rewriting-it's not foolproof, of course, but if you're honest about having thought of every possibility and you still come back to what you have, what more can you do?

consolation is a beautiful word. everyone skins his knee-that doesnt make yours hurt anyless.

I want to know everything about you, so I tell you everything about myself.