She wore her sexuality with an older woman's ease, and not like an awkward purse, never knowing how to hold it, where to hang it, or when to just put it down.

I never bought the idea of individual genius from which the novel spews forth. It's always an act of curation.

...They cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow.

I'm very attracted to exile literature - particularly Nabokov - exactly because the idea of being away from home for any serious length of time is so inconceivable to me.

Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand - but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.

You're a library of me.

Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.