“It seems natural to surround my fictional world with animals because my reality is full of them. When I'm sitting there conceiving a story, they just pop up.”

“I just think I'm better equipped to make a study of human personality than trying to get into the mind of animals.”

“I don't like outlining, because books are organic things. Sometimes a book doesn't want to be written in a certain way.”

“With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.”

“I stare at her for a long moment. I want to kiss her. I want to kiss her more than I've ever wanted anything in my life.”

“After sixty-one years together, she simply clutched my hand and exhaled.”

“I scan the room. Catherine is writing quickly, her light brown hair falling over her face. She is left-handed, and because she writes in pencil her left arm is silver from wrist to elbow.”

“Sometimes when you get older—and I'm not talking about you, I'm talking generally, because everyone ages differently—things you think on and wish on start to seem real. And then you believe...”