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')

I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage.

For me, writing something down was the only road out...I hated childhood, and spent it sitting behind a book waiting for adulthood to arrive. When I ran out of books I made up my own. At night, when I couldn't sleep, I made up stories in the dark.

I love to think about chance - about how one little overheard word, one pebble in a shoe, can change the universe.

Odd how clear it suddenly became, once a person had died, that the body was the very least of him.

Isn't a memorial service meant to comfort the living?

My decision to start a new one is just that, a decision, since I never get inspirations.