I always work in a room where there's no Internet to keep from being distracted so easily.

She lost much of her appetite. At night, an invisible hand kept shaking her awake every few hours. Grief was physiological, a disturbance of the blood. Sometimes a whole minute would pass in nameless dread - the bedside clock ticking, the blue moonlight coating the window like glue - before she`d remember the brutal fact that had caused it.

She wanted out of the decorating scheme.

The daily act of writing remains as demanding and maddening as it was before, and the pleasure you get from writing - rare but profound - remains at the true heart of the enterprise. On their best days, writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers, all alone in their studios, with no one watching.

To start with, look at all the books.

We listened to them, but it was clear they'd received too much therapy to know the truth.

But, like anyone in love, Madeleine believed that her own relationship was different from every other relationship, immune from typical problems.