Beautiful women are the torment of my existence.

It's a lot easier, she realized, to be on the verge of something than to actually be it. This would still take time.

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.

Please believe me when I tell you that I picked up each soul that day as if it were newly born. I even kissed a few weary, poisoned cheeks. I listened to their last, gasping cries. Their vanishing words. I watched their love visions and freed them from their fear.

You're far from this. This story is just another few hundred pages of your mind.

I always marvel at the humans' ability to keep going. They always manage to stagger on even with tears streaming down their faces.

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