You are unhappy because you believe in such a thing as happy.

We were in dialogue that was about something other than what we were saying.

Don't make your own life your project in your own life: total waste of time.

People love gossip because it's slightly removed from actuality. It's a very literary thing... You can hear a great story, and it turns out that it's largely not true. Fiction writing is like gossip. It's not malicious gossip, but it's gossip.

An author's life is different, complex, and ongoing, while a character's remains frozen in one little story.

Decide that you like college life. In your dorm you meet many nice people. Some are smarter than you. And some, you notice, are dumber than you. You will continue, unfortunately, to view the world in exactly these terms for the rest of your life.

But that inadequacy, or feeling of inadequacy, never really goes away. You just have to trudge ahead in the rain, regardless.