Tamed as it may be, sexuality remains one of the demonic forces in human consciousness - pushing us at intervals close to taboo and dangerous desires, which range from the impulse to commit sudden arbitrary violence upon another person to the voluptuous yearning for the extinction of one's consciousness, for death itself. Even on the level of simple physical sensation and mood, making love surely resembles having an epileptic fit at least as much as, if not more than, it does eating a meal or conversing with someone.

If tragedy is an experience of hyperinvolvement, comedy is an experience of underinvolvement, of detachment.

No 'we' should be taken for granted when the subject is looking at other people's pain.

the process of building a self and its works is always too slow. One is always in arrears to oneself.

It is easier to endure than to change. But once one has changed, what was endured is hard to recall.

Literature usually begets literature.

What I expect from writers-and from myself as a writer-is to articulate a complex view of things. To incite us to be more compassionate. To orchestrate our mourning. And to celebrate ecstasy.