I assemble stories-me and a hundred million other people-at the sentence level. Not by coming up with a sweeping story line..

The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me..

I would like to go for a ride with you, have you take me to stand before a river in the dark where hundreds of lightning bugs blink this code in sequ….

Maybe this is not a come-down-from-the-ledge story. But I tell it with the thought that the woman on the ledge will ask herself a question, the quest….

I exaggerated even before I began to exaggerate, because it's true — nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be..

I could claim any number of high-flown reasons for writing, just as you can explain certain dogs behavior... But maybe, it’s that they’re dog, and th….

I want to know everything about you, so I tell you everything about myself..

All those years on the psychiatrist's couch and suddenly the couch is moving. Good God, she is on that couch when the big one hits. Maidy didn't tell….

I'm not good at small talk; I'm not good at big talk; and medium talk just doesn't come up..

I know when a story is finished when there is not a single thing more I can think to do to it. And since I know at the start what the last line will ….

It is possible to imagine a person so entirely that the image resists attempts to dislodge it..

I often feel the effects of people only after they leave me..

consolation is a beautiful word. everyone skins his knee-that doesnt make yours hurt anyless..

Just once in my life--oh, when have I ever wanted anything just once in my life?.

Just because you have stopped sinking doesn't mean you're not still underwater..

I had a mother I could only seem to please with verbal accomplishments of some sort or another. She read constantly, so I read constantly. If I used ….

I told him about the way they get to know you. Not the way people do, the way they flatter you by wanting to know every last thing about you, only it….

I meet a person, and in my mind I'm saying three minutes; I give you three minutes to show me the spark..

I sleep with a glass of water on the nightstand so I can see by its level if the coastal earth is trembling or if the shaking is still me..

Wear your heart on the page, and people will read to find out how you solved being alive..

It was like that class at school where the teacher talks about Realization, about how you could realize something big in a commonplace thing. The exa….