Yes, I'm often reminded of her, and in one of my array of pockets, I have kept her story to retell. It is one of the small legion I carry, each one extraordinary in its own right. Each one an attempt - an immense leap of an attempt - to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it.

I want to talk to him. I want to ask him about that girl and if he loved her and still misses her.

I like to tell students, 'I didn't burst on to the literary scene.' I'm never good at things at the beginning. I was terrible at the start. I need to work and work.

...they watched the humans disappear. They watched them dissolve, like moving tablets in the humid air.

Even death has a heart.

...to swear with a ferocity that can only be described as a talent.

Five hundred souls. I carried them in my fingers, like suitcases. Or I'd throw them over my shoulder. It was only the the children I carried in my arms.