Say what you want about it, Hell is story-friendly... The mechanisms of hell are nicely attuned to the mechanisms of narrative. Not so the pleasures of Paradise. Paradise is not a story. It's about what happens when the stories are over.

Short story characters, mine anyway, are usually driven by impulse, not so much by their histories and the choices that they have to make.

I prefer short stories, but publishers would, of course, rather that writers produce novels, since novels are still more commercially viable.

There's nothing to talk about to strangers anymore, if you know what I mean. Everything I want to say, I say to her.

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

I don't think that most women have to prove that they're real women. You live long enough, you graduate to being real.

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.