When she packed up to leave, she knew that she was saying goodbye to something important, which was not that bad, in a way, because it meant that at least you had said hello to it to begin with.

Later I would come to believe that erotic ties were all a spell, a temporary psychosis, even a kind of violence, or at least they coexisted with these states.

People will do anything, anything, for a really nice laugh.

There was the usual dreaminess, I suppose. Also a shyness that caused me - and others - to notice that I could express myself better by writing than by speaking. This is typical of many writers, I think. What is a drawback in childhood is an asset to a literary life. Not being fluent on one’s feet sends one to the page and a habit is born.

A funny line can never exist on its own. It needs to be surrounded by mood and circumstances.

Things between us were dissolving like an ice cub in a glass: the smaller it got, the faster it disappeared.

Perhaps we had at last reached that stage of intimacy that destroys intimacy.