The lover`s discourse was of an extreme solitude. The solitude was extreme because it wasn`t physical. It was extreme because you felt it while in the company of the person you loved. It was extreme because it was in your head, the most solitary of places.

-Who are you, anyway? -Just someone who knows, from personal experience, how attractive it can be to think you can save somebody else by loving them.

I think it is important to remind people of the extent of our free will.

She was a large, disordered woman, like a child's drawing that didn't stay within the lines.

that since Cecilia’s suicide, the Lisbon’s could hardly wait for the night to forget themselves in sleep

I think the suicides in my first book came from the idea of growing up in Detroit. If you grow up in a city like that you feel everything is perishing, evanescent and going away very quickly.

Detroit's a great music town. If your interaction with it was mainly musical, I'm sure you have a good opinion of the place.