It's a feature of our age that if you write a work of fiction, everyone assumes that the people and events in it are disguised biography — but if you write your biography, it's equally assumed you're lying your head off.

When any civilization is dust and ashes," he said, "art is all that's left over. Images, words, music. Imaginative structures. Meaning—human meaning, that is—is defined by them. You have to admit that.

It's a lifelong failing: she has never been prepared. But how can you have a sense of wonder if you're prepared for everything? Prepared for the sunset. Prepared for the moonrise. Prepared for the ice storm. What a flat existence that would be.

Come away with me, he said, we will live on a desert island. I said, I am a desert island. It was not what he had in mind.

We battled in secret, undeclared, and after a while I no longer fought back because I never won. The only defense was flight, invisibility.

A word after a word after a word is power.

What is the real breath of a man — the breathing out or the breathing in?