Even death after a long illness is without warning. The moment you had prepared for so carefully took you by storm. The troops broke through the window and snatched the body and the body is gone. ... Death reduces us to the baffled logic of a small child. If yesterday why not today?

Six books… my mother didn’t want books falling into my hands. It never occurred to her that I fell into the books – that I put myself inside them for safe keeping.

This hole in my heart is in the shape of you. No one else can fit it. Why would I want them to?

Nothing can be forgotten. Nothing can be lost. The universe itself is one vast memory system. Look back and you will find the beginnings of the world.

You are a pool of clear water where the light plays

If we make anything that lasts, it outlives us.

My characters are always on the outside; the spotlight's not on them. But they do get somewhere.