I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it.

There was no one clear point of loss. It happened over and over again in a thousand small ways and the only truth there was to learn was that there was no getting used to it.

I read books I hate all the time, and I don't mention them or talk about them.

Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected.

I have seven step-siblings from my mother's second and third marriages. My degree of closeness to my step-siblings varies among the seven but I have a great sense of loyalty to all of them, especially the four from my childhood. If those people needed my help I would be there for them.

I believe that, more than anything else, this grief of constantly having to face down our own inadequacies is what keeps people from being writers. Forgiveness, therefore, is key. I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing. Again and again throughout the course of my life I will forgive myself.

Maybe the private life wasn't forever. Maybe everyone got it for a little while and then spent the rest of their lives remembering.