Reaching the finish line, never walking, and enjoying the race. These three, in this order, are my goals.

How much do you love me?' Midori asked. 'Enough to melt all the tigers in the world to butter,' I said.

When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.

Whenever I get into something, I shut out everything else.

No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.

And her sleep was too long and deep for that:so deep that she left her normal reality behind.

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