Or maybe, he thought, returning to the boxes, it was part of being Catholic--you were made to feel guilty about everything

The appetites of the body were private battles.

I don't think there was a particular book that made me want to write. They all did. I always wanted to write.

You surely know that in the course of a long marriage it is not unusual for a husband or a wife to develop a crush on someone else.

Olive's private view is that life depends on what she thinks of as "big bursts" and "little bursts." Big bursts are things like marriage or children, intimacies that keep you afloat, but these big bursts hold dangerous, unseen currents. Which is why you need the little bursts as well: a friendly clerk at Bradlee's, let's say, or the waitress at Dunkin' Donuts who knows how you like your coffee. Tricky business, really.

I love theater. I love sitting in an audience and having the actors right there, playing out what it means to be a human being.

Or maybe, he thought, returning to the boxes, it was part of being Catholic--you were made to feel guilty about everything