The quality of gifts depends on the sincerity of the giver.
Home, bed, sleep, mother--who knew more beautiful words than these?
To say it was a beautiful day would not begin to explain it. It was that day when the end of summer intersects perfectly with the start of fall .... [p.218 ff.]
I decided to make my living as a magazine writer. And I found that it was really easy and fun.
Learn to write by writing
I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as a shape for a novel: put a bunch of people in a beautiful place, give them all tuberculosis, make them all stay in a fur sleeping bag for several years and see what happens.