"Abby began to think that all the beauty and ugliness and turbulence one found scattered through nature, one could als…"

"But she had no memory of how to be brave. Here, it seemed, she had no memories at all. Nothing triggered them. And on…"

"As a vacuum cleaner can start to pull up the actual thread of a carpet, her brains had been sucked dry by too much yoga."

"Where?" The woman scowled, bewildered. "Iowa," Agnes repeated loudly. The woman in black touched Agnes's wrist and le…"

""The United States- how can you live in that country?" the man had asked. Agnes had shrugged. "A lot of my stuff is t…"

"Every arrangement in life carried with it the sadness, the sentimental shadow, of its not being something else, but o…"

"Every songwriter in their smallest song seems to possess some monumental grief clarified and dignified by melody, Bil…"

"(What about short-story writers-who are your favorites?) LE: Lorrie Moore...It's so hard to be funny - that's the har…"

"In general appearance the is an extremely large and powerful fellow, with a beautiful head and speaking countenance, …"

"Very few of the old s interfere with the duties of their assistants, but there be men who seem to think you have mere…"