Being afraid you'll look like a coward is the worst reason for doing anything.

They all settled into being the kind of friends when they heard from each other.... or when they occasionally got together. And when they were not in touch, they did not think of one another.

We are formed by what we desire

A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.

I've always been a fan of the 19th century novel, of the novel that is plotted, character-driven, and where the passage of time is almost as central to the novel as a major minor character, the passage of time and its effect on the characters in the story.

Just when you begin thinking of yourself as memorable, you run into someone who can't even remember having met you

but good friends are nothing to each other if they are not supportive.