People Are Afraid To Merge.

I Had All The Characteristics Of A Human Being—flesh, Blood, Skin, Hair—but My Depersonalization Was So Intense, Had Gone So Deep, That My Normal Ability To Feel Compassion Had Been Eradicated, The Victim Of A Slow, Purposeful Erasure. I Was Simply Imitating Reality, A Rough Resemblance Of A Human Being, With Only A Dim Corner Of My Mind Functioning

It's Like My Characters, All My Men Are Dad And Me In A Mess; All My Female Characters Are Smart And Hopeful, Like Mom Just Trying To Make The Best Of Things.

History Is Sinking And Only A Very Few Seem Dimly Aware That Things Are Getting Bad.

I Really Believe That Readers Are Smart And Sophisticated Enough To Realize That The Author Is Not The Narrator Of His Novels.

... Her Taste In Music Haunted My Memory And I Had To Stop At Tower Records On The Upper West Side To Buy Ninety Dollars' Worth Of Rap Cds But, As Expected, I'm At A Loss: [...] Voices Uttering Ugly Words Like Digit, Pudding, Chunk.