People die', she says. 'People tear down houses. But furniture, fine, beautiful furniture, it just goes on and on, surviving everything.' She says, 'Armoires are the cockroaches of our culture.

Because everything up to now is a story and everything after now is a story.

You know how they say you only hurt the ones you love? Well, it works both ways.

Real smarts begin when you quit quoting other people.

At this rate, we'll never get to the future.

I remember selling my first short story and thinking, Oh my god, I sold something for fifty dollars! That gives me the authority to say I'm a writer and to actually write more things! It legitimized the activity.

Disaster is a natural part of my evolution toward tragedy and dissolution.