I'm always nervous about going home, just as I am nervous about rereading books that have meant a lot to me.

It's not the one thing nor the other that leads to madness, but the space in between.

What can i tell you about the choices we make? Fate reads like the polar opposite of decision, and so much of life reads like fate.

Yes, the stories are dangerous, she was right. A book is a magic carpet that flies you off elsewhere. A book is a door. You open it. You step through. Do you come back?

Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights: the accumulations of a lifetime gather there. In places the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like Braille. I like to keep my body rolled up away from prying eyes, never unfold too much, or tell the whole story. I didn't know that Louise would have reading hands. She has translated me into her own book.

Art saved me; it got me through my depression and self-loathing, back to a place of innocence.

A character has a distinctive voice - you should be able to hear them in your head and conduct a conversation with them while you're out walking. If the answers surprise you, you know it's the character speaking and not you.