I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be
The fear is for what is still to be lost.
The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it
I need an hour alone before dinner, with a drink, to go over what I've done that day. I can't do it late in the afternoon because I'm too close to it. Also, the drink helps. It removes me from the pages.
I don't write for catharsis; I have to write to understand.
It is hard for people who have not lived in Los Angeles to realize how radically the Santa Ana figures in the local imagination. ... The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.