Chess is the most intimate game in the world. It's like making love. By the time we finish our first slow game, I will know all his thoughts.

I never did learn how to live in the moment, but I did learn that moments could be wasted and the world would continue to spin on its axis.

I love you," he said, his voice catching. "When I thought you were going to die, I wanted to die.

Dogs come when they're called; cats take a message and get back to you later.

Shame can kill the imagination. It's hard to keep writing in the face of cultural derision.

She still remembered sitting for hours as a little girl and pretending to be a hassock. A foot stool. Because if she could just stay very small, and very quiet, her mother would forget she was there, and then she wouldn't scream about people and places and things that had gone wrong.

In case there is any question in your mind," he said, cupping her face with his hands. "What I want, what I most desire, the loveliest sight on this dark earth, is you.