There are betrayals in war that are childlike compared with our human betrayals during peace. The new lovers enter the habits of the other. Things are smashed, revealed in a new light. This is done with nervous or tender sentences, although the heart is an organ of fire.

A love story is not about those who lost their heart but about those who find that sullen inhabitant who, when it is stumbled upon, means the body can fool no one, can fool nothing—not the wisdom of sleep or the habit of social graces. It is a consuming of oneself and the past.

The last three books are much more a case of a moment of history, what happened almost by accident or coincidence, like being in the same elevator or lifeboat.

To write about someone like myself would be very limiting.

You don't want to write your own opinion, you don't want to just represent yourself, but represent yourself through someone else.

I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you.

It's why you create characters: so you can argue with yourself.