... we had once called out hello into the cauldron of the world and then run away before anyone could respond.

I really did not feel okay about any of this, and there was really nothing I could do about any of it.

I knew the beginning and the end – I just had to dream up a convincing middle.

The job of the artist is to point at things.

I'm interested in what the virtues of all those things are, especially for the kind of person who's made their own world that revolves around them, like writers do. It seems especially precious.

Inelegantly, and without my consent, time passed.

Now began the part of her life where she was just very beautiful, except for nothing. Only winners will know what this feels like. Have you ever wanted something very badly and then gotten it? Then you know that winning is many things, but it is never the thing you thought it would be.