I saw the movie, he said. I know what it's about. Listen to this. When girls get to be about twelve or so - he leaned toward us - their tits bleed.

Some cities have fallen into ruin and some are built upon ruins but others contain their own ruins while still growing.

There are some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things.

She wanted a book to take her places she couldn't get to herself.

People don't save other people. People save themselves.

He knew a lot about his grandparents - and perhaps he feels he's been endowed with abilities to go into people's heads who are long dead - but, to a certain extent, he's making it up.

When I'm creating a character, it's a little bit like what my theater teachers used to tell me about Stanislavsky, like if you're using sense memory to do a scene - if you have to cry in a scene, you try to remember something in your life that made you cry and you use that in order to get the tears.