For Lou Ann, life itself was a life-threatening enterprise.

Every betrayal contains a perfect moment, a coin stamped heads or tails with salvation on the other side.

there are people who read my work and accuse me of being political! As far as I'm concerned that's like accusing a dog of having a bark!

We're surrounded by mandates, and I believe that literature should be mandate-free. I feel very strongly about that.

He lifts her breasts, which fit perfectly into his hands, though he knows this is no promise that he gets to keep them. A million things you can't have will fit in a human hand.

On the day I swore to uphold the Hippocratic oath, the small hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I waited for lightning to strike. Who was I, vowing calmly among all these necktied young men to steal life out of nature's jaws, every old time we got half a chance and a paycheck?... I could not accept the contract: that every child born human upon this earth comes with a guarantee of perfect health and old age clutched in its small fist.

Be still, and the world is bound to turn herself inside out to entertain you. Everywhere you look, joyful noise is clanging to drown out quiet desperation.