A story is a kind of biopsy of human life. A story is both local, specific, small, and deep, in a kind of penetrating, layered, and revealing way.

She knew there were only small joys in life--the big ones were too complicated to be joys when you got all through--and once you realized that, it took a lot of the pressure off.

If you record the world honestly, there's no way people can stop being funny. A lot of fiction writing doesn't get that idea, as if to acknowledge it would trivialize the story or trivialize human nature, when in fact human nature is reduced and falsified if the comic aspects are not included.

Nothing is a joke with me. It just all comes out like one.

I just adore her work. It's the subtle way she has of talking about the entirety of a life and the strange moments a life suddenly pivots upon. ... She's just a genius.

They had, finally, the only thing anyone really wants in life: someone to hold your hand when you die.