“Imagine you are the Earth and he is the Sun, that silence is tangible, and the stars are the souls of your previous lives.”

“Think of literary fiction as a meal with intricate scents, flavors, and textures that you can’t recognize unless you chew with your eyes closed.”

“If music were wind, I would live in a hurricane.”

“No matter how entertaining, diverse, concise, or detailed, a writing craft book is, it’s not going to work magic on you, it’s not going to suddenly make you a brilliant writer simply by reading it. You need to use what you read and learn in your own writing. Because that’s when you have those AHA moments. That's when it really sticks.”

“FLESHI drop my wedding ringin holy water.I hope it repels;the yearsof hate and hope,so I can finally relateto the son we made.”

“I don’t know how to pray,but I’ve seen them do iton TV; kneeling by a bedin nightgowns, hands wovenlike secret friends.”

“Learn the rules, then break them intelligently.”