We [me and Alison McGhee] probably wouldn't have said that when we were writing the stories, but it is so apparent to me in the finished product. For me, looking at Bink, it's like looking at myself on the page in a way that I've never experienced with any other book that I've written.

To me the book is like having a kid. I have to let it go out in the world, and great things will happen. Maybe they won't, but it has to keep on moving.

During the night, while Bull and Lucy slept, Edward, with ever-open eyes, stared up at the constellations. He said their names, and then he said the names of the people who loved him. He started with Abilene, and then went on to Nellie and Lawrence and from there to Bull and Lucy, and then he ended again with Abilene: Abilene, Nellie, Lawrence, Bull, Lucy, Abilene. See? Edward told Pellegrina. I am not like the princess. I know about love.

I thought I was going nowhere. Now I can see there was a pattern.

No one cared what she wanted. No one had ever cared. And perhaps, worst of all, no one ever would care.

That is surely the truth, at least for now. But perhaps you have not noticed: the truth is forever changing.

So, yes, at least from my end. You could say there's a lot of Alison [McGhee] in Gollie too.