I do think that I have a more flexible view of the interactions between people, and between human and non-human protagonists, humans and their landscapes.

It was sad and fierce all at once, alive with a lonely purity.

I have a B.A. in Spanish, so briefly I thought that somebody might pay me to speak Spanish badly in another country, like Norway.

Heaven, Kiwi thought, would be the reading room of a great library. But it would be private. Cozy. You wouldn't have to worry about some squeaky-shoed librarian turning the lights off on you or gauging your literacy by reading the names on your book spines, and there wouldn't be a single other patron. The whole place would hum with a library's peace, filtering softly over you like white bars of light.

Self-disciplin e is necessary, but so is playfulness, flexibility, joy. When you stop demanding perfection of yourself, your writing desk will become a spacious place.

Regret is a pilgrimage back to the place where I was free to choose.

When you're a kid, it's hard to tell the innocuous secrets from the ones that will kill you if you keep them.