I Dream Of Writing A Book Like

That The Last Two Letters In Her Name Were The First Two In His, A Silly Thing He Never Mentioned To Her But Caused Him To Believe That They Were Bound Together.

Writing Is One Of The Most Assertive Things A Person Can Do.

She Learned That An Act Intended To Express Love Could Have Nothing To Do With It. That Her Heart And Her Body Were Different Things.

It Was Not In My Nature To Be An Assertive Person. I Was Used To Looking To Others For Guidance, For Influence, Sometimes For The Most Basic Cues Of Life. And Yet Writing Stories Is One Of The Most Assertive Things A Person Can Do. Fiction Is An Act Of Willfulness, A Deliberate Effort To Reconceive, To Rearrange, To Reconstitute Nothing Short Of Reality Itself. Even Among The Most Reluctant And Doubtful Of Writers, This Willfulness Must Emerge. Being A Writer Means Taking The Leap From Listening To Saying, "listen To Me."

Try To Remember It Always," He Said Once Gogol Had Reached Him, Leading Him Slowly Back Across The Breakwater, To Where His Mother And Sonia Stood Waiting. "remember That You And I Made This Journey Together To A Place Where There Was Nowhere Left To Go.