Everyone has to scratch on walls somewhere or they go crazy

There always should be something hanging unfinished before a scene ends so that there's a reason for going to the next scene.

There was always, he thought, this pleasure ahead of him, an ace of joy up his sleeve so he could say you can do anything to me, take everything away, put me in prison, but I will know [her] when we are old.

That's one of the great sadnesses of any life - knowing what you know now and then remembering what you did not know then.

she had a laugh that hinted it had rolled around once or twice in the mud.

You are doing something over here and over there someone is telling you a joke, or giving you an important piece of information about sanitation, and no matter how weird the other subject is, there is a connection, or you can make a connection. I’ve always loved history and history is collage, it is a juxtaposition of the good and the bad and the strange, and how you place those sentences together changes the whole mood of a history.

There's a lot of thievery involved in writing. You're breaking into other people's spaces and other people's stories.