If the book is a mystery to its author as she's writing, inevitably it's going to be a mystery to the reader as he or she reads it.

...we take comfort in the symmetries we find in life because they suggest a design where there is none.

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.

there are two types of people in the world: those who prefer to be sad among others, and those who prefer to be sad alone.

What about you? Are you happiest and saddest right now that you've ever been?" "Of course I am." "Why?" "Because nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you.

She struggled with her sadness, but tried to conceal it, to divide it into smaller and smaller parts and scatter these in places she thought no one would find them.

To hike out alone in the desert; to sleep on the valley floor on a night with no moon, in the pitch black, just listening to the boom of silence: you can't imagine what that's like.

That's what I do. Watch movies and read. Sometimes I even pretend to write, but I'm not fooling anyone. Oh, and I go to the mailbox.

When will you learn that there isn't a word for everything?

I've reached the age where bruises are formed from failures within rather than accidents without.

So many words get lost. They leave the mouthand lose their courage, wandering aimlessly until they are swept into the gutter like dead leaves. On rainy days you can hear their chorus rushing past.

At that time I was only twenty-four years old. My life then was already gloomy, disorderly, and solitary to the point of savagery.

Never split up, better together than one by one to die!

Nothing is more satisfying than to write a good sentence.

Your mom was right when she told you never to discuss politics and religion because emotions run so high in those arenas. Especially religion.

When you're a mom to three children, nothing bothers you. Trust me. Who cares what people say? I've got other things to deal with.

Although wherever you are going is always in front of you, there is no such thing as straight ahead.

It doesn't pay to be good at something unless you are the absolute best at it.

When I wrote my first story, all the characters were teenagers because I think 16, 17 is a great age.

All moralistic judgments, whether positive or negative, are tragic expressions of unmet needs.

Cats probably wouldn't need 9 lives if they wore tiny little helmets and didn't smoke cigarettes.