I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card…and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.

Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a peanut with your nose across a very dirty floor.

Ultimately, we measure ourselves against our own ideas of idealism and perfection, and we don't always come very close to them.

A daydreamer is prepared for most things.

The American dream is a multi-metaphor made up of distinct regions. Many regions of this country are almost like different countries. Even in one state, northern and southern California are like two separate countries.

Acting is the loneliest profession I know.

Later, her first intense, serious love affair, yes then she'd lost something more tangible, if undefinable: her heart? her independence? her control of, definition of, self? That first true loss, the furious bafflement of it. And never again quite so assured, confident.