“There are always choices. Sometimes, we just refuse to see them because we fear them—or because they’re masquerading as something else.”

“Maybe it’s not, in the end, the virtues of others that so wrenches our hearts as it is the sense of almost unbearably poignant recognition when we see them at their most base, in their sorrow and gluttony and foolishness. You need the virtues, too—some sort of virtues—but we don’t care about Emma Bovary or Anna Karenina or Raskolnikov because they’re good. We care about them because they’re not admirable, because they’re us, and because great writers have forgiven them for it.”

“Sometimes, we are afraid of something because we're afraid of something else. ”

“Sometimes the most worthwhile things are right in front of our eyes. We just make them hard because we think that gives them more value.”

“sometimes there are reasons for our fears that we can’tquite explain. Sometimes it’s just something we feel in our bones, something we know to be true, butwould sound foolish to anyone else.”

“Fiction comes in all shapes and sizes. Secrets,lies,stories. We all tell them. Sometimes,because we hope to entertain. Sometimes,because we need to distract. And sometimes, because we have to.”