Literature is not a sack race. There aren't real winners and losers in the Republic of Letters.

In truth, there are only two realities: the one for people who are in love or love each other, and the one for people who are standing outside all that.

[T]he astonishing purity of pain, how it will not be mixed with any other sensation.

What's agitating about solitude is the inner voice telling you that you should be mated to somebody, that solitude is a mistake. The inner voice doesn't care about who you find. It just keeps pestering you, tormenting you.

It's my feeling that any writer can get an emotion into a story without being sentimental as long as the emotion is dealt with honestly, with sufficient clarity, and detail.

Before, I was always trying to make my relationships work by means of willpower and forced affability. This time I didn't have to strive for anything. A quality of ease spread over us.

The worst mistakes I've made have been the ones directed by sweet-natured hopefulness.