You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing.

All the history of the stage is a struggle, the gasping of a beautiful child born at the point of death. The moralists, censorship and oppression, technology, and now poverty have all tried to destroy her. Only we, the actors and audiences, have kept her alive.

He's not rewarding us by talking to us. He's talking to us because He has something to say to us directly, as opposed to the things He says to all humanity.

...in some situations winning consist[s] of disentangling oneself.

Imagine a man who stands before a mirror; a stone strikes it, and it falls to ruin all in an instant. And the man learns that he is himself, and not the mirrored man he had believed himself to be.

...I rejoiced in the flaws that made her more real to me

Do not start a story unless you have an ending in mind. You can change the story's ending if you wish, but you should always have a destination.