God, why does a mortal man have children? It is senseless to love anything this much.

Nine-tenths of human law is about possession.

it's the thing you fear most that walks beside you all the time.

If we can't, as artists, improve on real life, we should put down our pencils and go bake bread.

Even feigning surprise, pretending it was unexpected and saying a ritual thanks, is surely wiser than just expecting everything so carelessly.

you can't really know the person standing before you, because always there is some missing piece

Beginning a novel is always hard. It feels like going nowhere. I always have to write at least 100 pages that go into the trashcan before it finally begins to work. It's discouraging, but necessary to write those pages. I try to consider them pages -100 to zero of the novel.