People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.

I think it must be very hard to be one of the new young writers who are urged to put themselves forward when it may be the last thing on earth they'd be good at

I was standing in the schoolyard waiting for a child when another mother came up to me. Have you found work yet? she asked. Or are you still just writing?

He wished he had inhabited more of his life, used it better, filled it fuller.

One sad thing about this world is that the acts that take the most out of you are usually the ones that people will never know about. (from 'Celestial Navigation')

My stories are never quite good enough

It is not how much you love someone, but who you are when you are with him.