Desperation is like a spilled drink; even if it's delicious, no one will get near it. Cultivate an aura of glamorous unapproachability.

One cannot spend forever sitting and solving the mysteries of oone's history.

It is not very polite to interrupt a person, of course, but sometimes if the person is very unpleasant you can hardly stop yourself.

Announcing your death should be like announcing that you are a lunar moth: It must be done quietly or it will not be believed.

It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things.

We need things, and the opposite of them, and we are so rarely completely comfortable.

I decided that it might be interesting to have terrible things happen to orphans over and over again.