A girl doesn't always want to go out, you know, Mr. Wind-Up Bird. Sometimes she feels like being nasty--like, if the guy's gonna wait, let him really wait.

There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair.

Life is here, death is over there. I am here, not over there.

Knowledge and ability were tools, not things to show off.

It's true that at the time I was fond of Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan, and it was from them that I learned about this kind of simple, swift-paced style, but the main reason for the style of my first novel is that I simply did not have the time to write sustained prose.

Loving another person is a wonderful thing, and if that love is sincere, no one ends up tossed into a labyrinth. You have to have more faith in yourself.

In the end, like so many beautiful promises in our lives, that dinner date never came to be.