A family is one of nature's solubles; it dissolves in time like salt in rainwater.

But even her demons she invested with inordinate beauty, consecrated them with the dignity of her attention.

Except for memory, time would have no meaning at all.

It is the secret life that sustains me now, and as I reach the top of that bridge I say it in a whisper, I say it as a prayer, as regret, and as praise. I can't tell you why I do it or what it means, but each night when I drive toward my southern home and my southern life, I whisper these words: 'Lowenstein, Lowenstein.

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

Writing is the only way I have to explain my own life to myself.

I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.