I realized the structure in a collection is how they're put together. Structuring the collection became the art of it for me. Because the stories had all been written.

At peace? Who but the insane would ever be at peace? What person who has enjoyed life could possibly think one is enough? Who could live even a day and not feel the sweet ache of regret?

He thought it might be the most intimate thing possible, to fall asleep next to someone in the afternoon.

He found himself in habiting the vast, empty plateau where most people live, between boredom and contentment.

I pretty much drink a cup of coffee, write in my journal for a while, and then sit at a computer in my office and torture the keys. My one saving grace as a writer is that, if I'm having trouble with the novel I'm writing, I write something else, a poem or a short story. I try to avoid writer's block by always writing something.

A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.” “That’s only three.” Alvis finished his wine. “You have to do disappointment twice.

This is what happens when you live in dreams, he thought: you dream this and you dream that and you sleep right through your life.