For me, the battle isn't Hillary [Clinton] vs. [Bernie] Sanders. And I understand that for some people that's the battle. But for me, more than anything, it's stopping a Republican president.

Here at last is her smile: burn it into your memory; you won't see it often.

It's exactly at these moments, when all hope has vanished, that prayer has dominion.

In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.

You need to learn how to walk the world, he told me. There's a lot out there.

You don't want to let go, but don't want to be hurt, either. It's not a great place to be but what can I tell you?

Then you look at her and smile a smile your dissembling face will remember until the day you die. Baby, you say, baby, this is part of my novel. This is how you lose her.