Stories are artifacts, not really made things which we create and can take credit for, but pre-existing objects which we dig up.
Friends come in and out of our lives, like busboys in a restaurant.
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
And didn't they say that, although curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought the beast back?
Time's the thief of memory
The harder you had to work to open a package, the less you ended up caring about what was inside.