I think it's dangerous to think you know what you're writing. I usually don't know, and usually I just discover it in the course of writing. I envy those writers who can outline a beginning, a middle, and end. Fitzgerald supposedly did it. John Irving does. Bret Easton Ellis does. But for me, the writing itself is the process of discovery. I can't see all that far ahead.

He insisted on a single trade secret: that you had to survive, find some quiet, and work hard every day.

I think men talk to women so they can sleep with them and women sleep with men so they can talk to them.

Your presence here is is only a matter of conducting an experiment in limits, reminding yourself of what you aren’t.

Eat, drink and remarry is my motto.

Things happen, people change,' is what Amanda said. For her that covered it. You wanted an explanation, and ending that would assign blame and dish up justice. You considered violence and you considered reconciliation . But what you are left with is a premonition of the way your life will fade behind you, like a book you have read too quickly, leaving a dwindling trail of images and emotions, until all you can remember is a name.

There aren't many shy writers left.