His father was self-made, but his mother was constructed by others, and such edifices are notoriously fragile.

Time is not a thing that passes ... it's a sea on which you float.

Once a month I wake in the night, slippery with terror. I'm afraid, not because there's someone in the room, in the dark, in the bed, but because there isn't. I'm afraid of the emptiness, which lies beside me like a corpse.

Even an obvious fabrication is some comfort when you have few others.

I was kidnapped by literature at a young age and never wanted to be ransomed.

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.

Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome.