Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow.

Depression, suffering and anger are all part of being human.

Wasn't that the way it always was? You didn't know, you couldn't tell, you just let it happen... Perhaps they didn't know themselves. Sometimes the line was very fine.

That was the thing about words, they were clear and specific-chair, eye, stone- but when you talked about feelings, words were too stiff, they were this and not that, they couldn't include all the meanings. In defining, they always left something out.

And if there is no god? You act as if there is, and it's the same thing.

Aquamarines grew with emeralds, Claire told me. But emeralds were fragile and always broke into smaller pieces, while aquamarines were stronger, grew in huge crystals without any trouble, so they weren't worth as much. It was the emerald that didn't break that was the really valuable thing.

My house is modern, but I like my writing room to be old fashioned. I write on a little wooden secretary desk.