Life

It isn't enough to have had an interesting or hilarious or tragic life. Art isn't anecdote. It's the consciousness we bring to bear on our lives. For what happened in the story to transcend the limits of the personal, it must be driven by the engine of what the story means.

When you're writing a whodunit, the dead body is the most important character. It's the pivot point around which the plot spins.

It's your road, and yours alone.Others may walk it with you,but no one can walk it for you.

Deep in my heart, an unsung song longs to know when my footsteps will not paint the shoreline of this beautiful sandy beach. Will anyone remember me and sing my unsung song along the waves and feel the breeze with love?

Maybe I'll go where I can see stars, he said to himself as the car gained velocity and altitude; it headed away from San Francisco, toward the uninhabited desolation to the north. To the place where no living thing would go. Not unless it felt that the end had come.

Dating isn't a natural need.

...After all, who isn't a survivor from the wreck of childhood?

Each of us does in effect strike a series of 'deals' or compromises between the wants and longings of the inner self and an outer environment that offers certain possibilities and sets certain limitations.

Destiny is not what you become but what you do with it.

As Richard has pointed out on several occasions, I subscribe to the irregular verb theory of life: I am a trained investigator, you have a healthy curiosity, she/he is a nosy parker.

I find myself enjoying being alone a lot of the time, people come and people go and you have to find a way to be ok with both.

Don't time travel into the past, roaming through the nuances as if they can change. Don't bookmark pages you've already read.

When she stopped conforming to the conventional picture of femininity she finally began to enjoy being a woman.

This life is like a roller-coaster; once you are strapped-in and the ride has started, you aren't getting off.

Is that Disney magic of pixie magic?' I kid... 'It is life magic'.

The path to paradise begins in hell.

When I can no longer create anything I'll be done for.

Why come back to this empty house, and this Manila with a strange face; the one I never knew? All those lonely islands. They will keep afloat without me.

Death is the night sky, the background against which the fleeting fireworks of life are displayed, an empty stage upon which the drama of life is played.

Are you sleepwalking?' A voice asked behind me. 'I was testing dorm security,' I said. 'It sucks.