Fiction was invented the day Jonas arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale.

For a week I did not take off my mechanic's coverall day or night I did not bathe or shave or brush my teeth because love taught me too late that you groom yourself for someone you dress and perfume yourself for someone and I'd never had anyone to do that for.

He was healthier than the rest of us, but when you listened with the stethoscope you could hear the tears bubbling inside his heart.

More than mother and son, they were accomplices in solitude.

Old people, with other old people, are not so old.

I don't have a method. All I do is read a lot, think a lot, and rewrite constantly. It's not a scientific thing.

A falcon who chases a warlike crane can only hope for a life of pain.