Writing Is A Job, A Talent, But

Whenever I Saw Her, I Felt Like I Had Been Living In Another Country, Doing Moderately Well In Another Language, And Then She Showed Up Speaking English And Suddenly I Could Speak With All The Complexity And Nuance That I Hadn't Realized Was Gone. With Lucy I Was A Native Speaker.

You Can't Be A Good Person When You're Writing And A Bad Person To Your Husband Or A Bad Friend. You Can't Be A Jerk In Order To Be A Good Writer. You Can't Say, "i'm Too Busy Writing To Be Political." You Are One Person. You Are The Same Person In Every Aspect Of Your Life, And You Have To Be A Responsible Person In Every Aspect Of Your Life.

I Was Always On Time, I Did My Work To Exact Specifications, I Spoke When Spoken To.

To Say It Was A Beautiful Day Would Not Begin To Explain It. It Was That Day When The End Of Summer Intersects Perfectly With The Start Of Fall .... [p.218 Ff.]

I Was Very Influenced By The Magic Mountain. It's A Book That Had A Huge Impact On Me. I Loved That As A Shape For A Novel: Put A Bunch Of People In A Beautiful Place, Give Them All Tuberculosis, Make Them All Stay In A Fur Sleeping Bag For Several Years And See What Happens.