“A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.”

“Julian had once told me that a story is a letter the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.”

“a story is a letter the author writes to himself to tell what he wouldn't discover otherwise.”

“Write," he said."I'll write to you as soon as I get there," answered Julian."No. Not to me. Write books. Not letters. Write them for me, for Penelope.”

“He lost himself in the words and images conjured in his mind and for a while forgot ... He found himself flying among stars and planets ...”

“[H]e lay awake, dreading the dawn when he would have to say good-bye to the small universe he had built for himself over the years.”

“I was secretly convinced that with such a marvel one would be able to write anything, from novels to encyclopedias, and letters whose supernatural power would surpass any postal limitations--a letter written with that pen would reach the most remote corners of the world, even that unknowable place to which my father said my mother had gone and from where she would never return.”