He who hesitates is not only lost, but miles from the next exit.

Oblivion seemed the only reasonable option.

Arguing with a dead man in a lavatory is a claustrophobic experience.

What reader wants to be told what attitude to strike?

At that moment, the urge to be writing was stronger than any notion she had of what she might write.

How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her. There is nothing outside her. In her imagination she has set the limits and the terms. No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all.

When people have supernatural beliefs I think they should be respected but there is no reason why they need to impose them on others.