Authors always take rejection badly. They equate it with infanticide.

Daniel supposed he had a secret life. Most people did; it was hardly possible to live without one.

Suicide is the most private and mysterious of acts, inexplicable because the chief actor is never there to explain it.

People were excited by violence. What, after all, was the sexual act but a voluntarily endured assault, a momentary death?

the unforgivable was usually the most easily forgiven.

All fiction is largely autobiographical and much autobiography is, of course, fiction.

It is difficult to be generous-minded to those we have greatly harmed.