I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend... I can pretend that things last.

As far as I'm concerned, the entire reason for becoming a writer is not having to get up in the morning.

The problems with success, frankly, are infinitely preferable to the problems of failure.

I'm a stranger," pointed out Bod. "You're not," she said, definitely. "You're a little boy." And then she said, "And you're my friend. So you can't be a stranger.

There was Virginia Boote, the food and restaurant critic, who had once been a great beauty but was now a grand and magnificent ruin, and who delighted in her ruination.

When things go wrong, this is what you should do. Make good art.

She was the storm, she was the lightning, she was the adult world with all its power and all its secrets and all its foolish casual cruelty.