“A personal library is an X-ray of the owner’s soul. It offers keys to a particular temperament, an intellectual disposition, a way of being in the world. Even how the books are arranged on the shelves deserves notice, even reflection. There is probably no such thing as complete chaos in such arrangements.”

“Believe me, if you’re a teenager, you’re always in the damned woods. Literally, you’re in the woods — probably too much you’re in the woods. And metaphorically you’re in the woods, in your life.”

“It is not an easy thing to alter the trajectory of your life. People have expectations on your behalf. You come to believe them yourself.”

“Fictional characters soon take on a life of their own. They run with the bit between their teeth.”

“All writers would like to be overrated in their own lifetimes.”

“Poetry is a language adequate to one's experience.”

“In dreams begin possibilities.”