The injury of words. Yes, the brutality of words.

But neither of us knows, because a fight's worth nothing if you know from the start that you're going to win it.

I'm asking you, I'm begging you, could you please shut your mouth for just five minutes?" You can imagine the reaction. They ended up in the basement.

She was a girl with a mountain to climb.

It was a style not of perfection, but warmth. Even mistakes had a good feeling about them

I think she ate a salad and some soup. And loneliness. She ate that, too.

You'll have days of complete lack of faith in your abilities. But you have to keep coming back. That's when you know you're a writer - when you take the failures and appear at the desk again, over and over again.