It made him feel invisible—not that he wanted to feel anything else.

It's probably a form of childish curiosity that keeps me going as a fiction writer. I ... want to open everybody's bureau drawers and see what they keep in there. I'm nosy.

You might 'write from the heart,' but you'd better polish with your brain.

You meet the same people on the way down that you meet on the way up, but you're going the other way.

­Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.

And she finds it difficult to believe—that a person would love her even when she isn't trying. Trying to figure out what other people need, trying to be worthy.

The future of the codex book, with pages and so forth? A platform for transmitting narratives. There are others.