What I know is, you have chance in life--of surviving it--if you tolerate loss well; manage not to be a cynic through it all; to subordinate, as Ruskin implied, to keep proportion, to connect the unequal things into a whole that preserves the good, even if admittedly good is often not simple to find.

The art of living your life has a lot to do with getting over loss. The less the past haunts you, the better.

And I think that in myself (and perhaps evident in what I write) fear of loss and the corresponding instinct to protect myself against loss are potent forces.

My job is to have empathy and curiosity for things that I've never done. Also, I'm a person whom people talk to.

I wouldn't be a very good writer if someone hadn't taught me how to read.

Writing is the only thing I've ever done with persistence, except for being married.

Most things don't stay the way they are very long.