“Literature simply becomes richer after you've been fired, rejected, stranded, or had to change a few midnight diapers.”

“The fire of my tribulations had not simply been pain to be endured. It had been an agent of transformation. After all that I'd been through, I'd changed. Not for the worse, I was pretty sure--at least not yet. But only a moron or a freaking lunatic could have faced the things I had and remained unfazed by them.”

“I'm beginning to think that you aren't with child. You've simply become fat after reading too many recipes.”

“...life every now and then becomes literature...as if life had been made and not happened.”

“A few strands of his long, dark hair had been caught by the wind and blown against his face. Without thinking, she reached up and smoothed the strands away from his skin, wishing she could smooth away the pain etched there.”

“It was a moment he remembered for years after, as though a special small slice had been cut from the cake of time. If nothing fires between two people, such an instant simply falls back into the general wrack of memory.”