Actually, my first literary heroes were the Romantic poets, so I began to get serious by writing poems. I have notebooks full of them that I cherish but am afraid to look at.

The universe may be tenderly indifferent to our fate, but we shouldn’t be. We are our brothers’ keepers. There is right, and there is wrong. There are consequences to our actions or inactions. Disregard can be an act of violence.

I was reading for understanding. I wanted to do to a reader what Salinger did for me.

You can't possibly conduct a proper affair without a lot of deliberating, scheming, speculating, and conniving. It's a delicate balance where the excitement must equal the guilt and sex must be as bright as the future you gamble.

Love is always a surprise and you never get it right.

Every person in therapy has a love disorder.

The landscape of childhood shapes us as it shapes the characters in our stories. You never forget the sacred places of your childhood.