It was what you did, Wolgast understood; you started to tell a story about who you were, and soon enough the lies were all you had and you became that person.

Choosing writing as a career, just by itself, is a measure of not being a calculating person.

The sadness you feel is not your own. It's his sadness you feel in your heart, Amy, for missing you.

I was very much a child of the Cold War.

What strange places our lives can carry us to, what dark passages.

Here she was, a women who could bolt-load a crossbow in under a second, put half a dozen long arrows in the air in fewer than five, blade a target dead through the sweet spot at six meters, on the run, on an off day; and yet knitting a pair of baby booties seemed completely beyond her power.

So, whenever I'm writing, I'm writing in the presence of all the other books I've read and I think we all are.