Are you sure self-pity is a luxury you can afford, Jack?

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

Stories are artifacts, not really made things which we create and can take credit for, but pre-existing objects which we dig up.

Well, I'm like a drug addict, I'm always saying I'm going to stop, and then I don't, what I've said consistently is that I hope I know when to stop: when it starts to get repetitive.

If it's ka it'll come like a wind, and your plans will stand before it no more than a barn before a cyclone

"You need hedges.""Hedges," I said, bemused. "Yes, Edgar." He looked surprised and a little disappointed, as if I had failed to understand a very simple concept. "Hedges against the night."

I am in trouble here. This woman is not right.