To be anorexic...she thought, amounted to wanting to shed yourself of some of the imperfect mosaic of pieces that made you who you were. She could understand that now for, maybe underneath that desquamated self you would locate a new version.

This post-college world felt different from everything that had come before it.

When I wrote The Interestings, I wanted to let time unspool, to give the book the feeling of time passing. I had to allow myself the freedom to move back and forth in time freely, and to trust that readers would accept this.

The child who was happy with herself meant the parents had won the jackpot.

Wasn't the whole point of being an artist, or at least part of it, that you didn't have to wear a tie?

Everybody has a theme. You talk to somebody awhile, and you realize they have one particular thing that rules them. The best you can do is a variation on the theme, but that's about it.

Just the act of sleeping beside someone you liked to be with. Maybe that was love.