You think intelligence and grit can succeed by themselves, but I'm telling you that's a pretty illusion.

An alien had given her his phone number and asked her to wait. It was almost like dating again.

You must learn to be three people at once: writer, character, and reader.

Where did the bonds of maternity end? All children grew up, changed, became somebody else. Parents who trembled that they might lose a gap-toothed toddler to some terrible accident ended up losing him anyway, always, to time. The toddlers died, after all, and what was left was a bond with another adult, who had once been the beloved child.