Sooner or later, even the sharpest pain became flattened.

They were like people who run to meet, holding out their arms, but their aim is wrong; they pass each other and keep running.

...he thought of dying as a kind of adventure, something new that he hadn't yet experienced. Like an unusual vacation trip.

I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them - without a thought about publication - and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside.

It's true that writing is a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them.

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.

People who hadn't suffered a loss yet struck me as not quite grown up.