Scratch a fantasy and you'll find a nightmare.

It's and old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.

If writers possess a common temperament, it's that they tend to be shy egomaniacs; publicity is the spotlight they suffer for the recognition they crave.

The belief that life was hard and often its worst battles were fought in private, that it was possible to walk through fear and come out scorched but still breathing.

the territory of grief ... is both cruel and commonplace.

What they never tell you about grief is that missing someone is the simple part.

The truth, or success, of any writer's story lies partly in its specificity and its emotional honesty.