I like the way the morning can be stormy and the afternoon clear and sparkly as a jewel in the water. Put your hand in the water to reach for a sea urchin or a sea shell, and the thing desired never quite lies where you had lined it up to be. The same is true of love. In prospect or contemplation, love is where it seems to be. Reach in to lift it out and your hand misses

It is important not to force a character into something. Fiction writers can be too controlling - usually that's a terror of our own unconscious processes.

When people looked at him they had the feeling of being shut out. He did not shut them out. He shut himself in.

The only selfish life is a timid one.

Whatever it is that pulls the pin, that hurls you past the boundaries of your own life into a brief and total beauty, even for a moment, it is enough.

However it is debased or misinterpreted, love is a redemptive feature. To focus on one individual so that their desires become superior to yours is a very cleansing experience.

My books always begin with a sentence and an image - not necessarily connected.