I do not have any other way of saying it. I think it happens but once and only to the very young when it feels like your skin could ignite at the mere touch of another person. You get to love like that but once.

You do not learn how to write novels in a writing program. You learn how by leading an interesting life. Open yourself up to all experience. Let life pour through you the way light pours through leaves.

I’ve never had anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.

She thought she brought a gift of compassion for those exhausted souls who had not received a chest portion from the people who raised them. If compassion and therapy did not work, she could always send her patients to the local pharmacy for drugs.

I've never cackled with laughter at a single line I've ever written. None of it has given me pleasure.

... the wing of a fly is proof enough of the existence of God for me.

But no one walks out of his family without reprisals: a family is too disciplined an army to offer compassion to its deserters.