In the spring of 1988, I returned to New Orleans, and as soon as I smelled the air, I knew I was home. It was rich, almost sweet, like the scent of jasmine and roses around our old courtyard. I walked the streets, savoring that long lost perfume.

It's an awful truth that suffering can deepen us, give a greater lustre to our colours, a richer resonance to our words.

Being liberated means reading what you want to read, and fantasizing about what you want to fantasize about.

The highest truths a person could discover were rooted in the natural world.

Yes. To write a novel is to risk my sanity. The deeper I get into the suffering and conflict of the characters, into the very situations and thoughts and feelings that make the novel worthwhile, the worse I feel, and the more likely I am to be severely depressed when the book is finished. There is no avoiding this: it is the result of attempting to tell all you know, to reach for the stars, to write what matters.

Some mysteries are simply irresistible,” she said. “They have components that alter a life.

Claudia... you've been a very very naughty little girl.