All objects exist in a moment of time.

When my daughter looks at me, she sees a small old lady. That is because she sees only with her outside eyes. She has no chuming, no inside knowing of things. If she had chuming she would see a tiger lady. And she would have careful fear.

And when I say that is certainly true, that our marriage is over. I know what else she will say: "Then you must save it." And even though I know it's hopeless- there's absolutely nothing left to save-I'm afraid if I tell her that, she'll still persuade me to try.

I saw my mother in a different light. We all need to do that. You have to be displaced from what's comfortable and routine, and then you get to see things with fresh eyes, with new eyes.

I can never remember things I didn't understand in the first place.

I think we often write because we feel a loneliness, and people read for the same reason, and then they come away feeling a little less lonely.

Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain.