Writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.

I often dream about the Dolphin Hotel.

It was as if I were writing letters to hold together the pieces of my crumbling life.

That's wrong," she declared. "Everyone must have one thing that they can excel at. It's just a matter of drawing it out, isn't it? But school doesn't know how to draw it out. It crushes the gift. It's no wonder most people never get to be what they want to be. They just get ground down.

I never plan. I never know what the next page is going to be..... But that's the fun of writing a novel or a story, because I don't know what's going to happen next.

They sat on a park bench, held hands, and told each other their stories hour after hour. They were not lonely anymore. They had found and been found by their 100% perfect other. What a wonderful thing it is to find and be found by your 100% perfect other. It's a miracle, a cosmic miracle.

This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: At the time, no one knew what was coming.