In terms of work, I never felt that I've done it right. I always want to have done it differently, to have done it better, a different way.

Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write.

In theory momentos serve to bring back the moment. In fact they serve only to make clear how inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here. How inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here is something else I could never afford to see.

I lead a very conventional life.

we are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. as we were. as we are no longer. as we will one day not be at all.

Let me tell you one thing about why writers write: had I known the answer to any of these questions I would never have needed to write a novel.

I mean maybe I was holding all the aces, but what was the game?