You're a beautiful drunk, daughter. But you're a drunk.

Life and death matters, yes. And the question of how to behave in this world, how to go in the face of everything. Time is short and the water is rising.

There is no answer. It's okay. But even if it wasn't okay, what am I supposed to do?

A great danger, or at least a great temptation, for many writers is to become too autobiographical in their approach to their fiction. A little autobiography and a lot of imagination are best.

And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.

I've crossed some kind of invisible line. I feel as if I've come to a place I never thought I'd have to come to. And I don't know how I got here. It's a strange place. It's a place where a little harmless dreaming and then some sleepy, early-morning talk has led me into considerations of death and annihilation.

Fiction shows the external effects of internal conditions. Be aware of the tension between internal and external movement.