Love could never bloom in a concrete block room.

It's not that he was going nowhere, it's that he'd already arrived.

I usually start with something that has some energy, like a compressed character or a situation that's wound up like a spring. Then all I have to do is let it go, let its energy carry the story. And that may not turn out to be the beginning of the book.

What can she possibly teach you, twenty seven names for tears?

I felt like time was a great sea, and I was floating on the back of a turtle, and no sails broke the horizon.

You paid for every second of beauty you managed to steal.

I love Derrick Brown for the surprise of one word waking up next to another. One moment tender, funny or romantic, the next, visceral, ironic and relevatory-here is the full chaos of life. An amazing talent.