...crushed between the fears of going forward and the dread of going back.

I was captivated by Sherrie Flick's meticulous and intelligent study of Margaret and Vivette, and the men they share. Reconsidering Happiness is a courageously intimate novel about the young women of modern America, their friendships, their betrayals, and their anxious cravings for everything from sex to pastry.

My father had osteomyelitis-his left arm was withered between his elbow and his shoulder ... . But the amputation of a Stone Age man called Leaf, a stoneworker, does not relate to my father at all.

Secrets are like pregnancies hereabouts. You can hide them for a while but then they will start screaming.

To ask a novelist to talk about his novels is like asking somebody to cook about their dancing.

There's solace in the thought that I will never finish missing her.

These are the stories that we tell ourselves and only ourselves, and they are better left unshared.