-You are on the verge of being truly mad. -No, not at all. Look at me. I can tie my shoelaces. See?

We are not damned. We never were. Who under the sun has the right to damn any living breathing creature?

And my heart beat faster for the mountains of eastern Europe, finally, beat faster for the one hope that somewhere we might find in that primitive countryside the answer to why under God this suffering was allowed to exist - why under God it was allowed to begin, and how under God it might be ended. I had not the courage to end it, I knew, without that answer.

The thing should have plot and character, beginning, middle and end. Arouse pity and then have a catharsis. Those were the best principles I was ever taught.

Was it fair to say I didn't know the full state of my soul?

I was typing away while everybody was dropping acid and smoking grass. I was known as my own square.

Strong women are absolutely unpredictable.