It was something every child knew how to do, maintain a direct and full connection with the world. Somehow you forgot about it as you grew up, and had to learn it again.

The television replaced the sound of conversation that was missing from my grandparents' lives.

It was morning by the clock but deepest nighttime in his body.

The trees like lungs filling with air. My sister, the mean one, pulling my hair.

I had a briefcase at one point, but it was a kind of 1980s New Wave briefcase. It was made of some kind of cardboard and it had metal hinges. It was kind of faux industrial looking, and I used to carry my books in it rather than a backpack. I didn't want to have normal student accoutrements.

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

Every novelist should possess a hermaphroditic imagination.