we need ghost stories because we, in fact, are the ghosts.

I just didn't want her to get hurt. I thought she was going to be. But everyone gets their share, don't they? Sure. Pow, in the nose. Pow, in the eye. Pow, below the belt, down you go, and the ref just went out for a hot dog.

A successful novel should interrupt the reader’s life, make him or her miss appointments, skip meals, forget to walk the dog.

There’s always someone who knows something.

I worry about you Bev. I worry a lot.

And people who don’t dream, who don’t have any kind of imaginative life, they must… they must go nuts. I can’t imagine that.

I like to hang out clothes on windy days. Sometimes that's all I feel like. A sheet on a line.