No, none of us seem so very real. We're only supporting characters in the lives of each other. Any real truth, any precious fact will always be lost in a mountain of shattered make-believe.

The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.

That's how a good story works. It changes how you feel. It brings you to a greater appreciation, a greater joy, of your own existence.

You only ask people about themselves so you can tell them about yourself.

Only after disaster can we be resurrected. It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything. Nothing is static, everything is evolving, everything is falling apart.

You had to risk your life to get love. You had to get right to the edge of death to ever be saved.

The short stories tend to be a journalistic gathering of anecdotes that are put together to make something larger.