To stutter through it with you or even stop stuttering and say nothing, was so lucky and soft, better talk than mile-a-minute with anyone. After a few minutes we’d stop rattling, we’d adjust, we’d settle in, and the conversation would speed into the night.

It turns out she is Canadian, my editor, and so she drinks like a fish. So she wasn't a lightweight at all. And in the morning, she said that the idea still seemed like a good one, and here we are.

So you’re reluctant, I said to myself. Many, many people are reluctant. It’s like having feet. It’s nothing to brag about.

There are two types of panicking: standing still and not saying a word, and leaping all over the place babbling anything that comes into your head.

But just suddenly I really, really needed to see you again right that minute, that night.

Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it isn't so.

One has to adopt a sort of Zen calm, in which you know you wrote the best book that you could at the time.