That was the way illness appeared in a house, in the corners, in between floorboards, on the hooks in the closet, along with the sweaters and coats.
I never see a novel as a film while I’m writing it. Mostly because novels and films are so different, and I’m such an internal novelist.
It’s not the lie that’s the problem; it’s the distance the lie forges between you.
Young people believe that regret is something you will never feel if you simply do as you please, but sometimes it is a matter of degree.
You can’t dispute the ridiculous. You can’t argue reasonably with evil.
I must keep my head and not give in to desire, for desire is what causes women to drown.
Weapons are kept from women, but such a naming suggests that perhaps men fear our talents in war as well as our desire for peace.
That’s the way love sounds, my mother told me. You think it should feel like honey, but instead it cuts like a knife.
He believed in dreams, in endings that people told you could never happen, in disappointments reversed and luck that lasted.
Love was like that, like a dream you didn’t quite understand, one in which you didn’t necessarily know what you were looking at until it was right in front of you.
At midnight the wind in the tress can sound like the ocean. The moonlight can make a road appear as endless as the sea.
He wanted pain, I saw that in him, and what a man wants he will often manage to find.
Still anyone who trusts a serpent deserves its bite. The wise see a creature for what it is, not what it says it may be.
Certain things need not be said, and there’s nothing, not a whisper, prayer, not a sacrifice, not a payment of any price, that would change what’s about to happen.
Some fates are guaranteed, no matter who tries to intervene.
I heard a sigh, as though the books were breathing. I felt that this was where I belonged. This was where I lived.
People want to ignore what they can’t understand. They’re looking for logic at any cost.
Are people drawn to each other because of the stories they carry inside?
Avoid men who call you Baby, and women who have no friends, and dogs that scratch at their bellies and refuse to lie down at your feet. Wear dark glasses; bathe with lavender oil and cool fresh water. Seek shelter from the sun at noon.
You can try to take sorrow and make it into something enduring, meaningful and beautiful. I always feel guilty that this is my job, that I get to do this.