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 bou… - Jhumpa Lahiri

Fiction is an act of willfulness, a deliberate effort to reconcile, to rearrange, to reconstitute nothing short of reality itself. Even among the most reluctant and doubtful of writers, this willingfulness must emerge. Being a writer means taking the leap from listening to saying, 'Listen to me'.

The knowledge of death seemed present in both sisters — it was something about the way they carried themselves, something that had broken too soon and had not mended, marking them in spite of their lightheartedness.

Reading in another language implies a perpetual state of growth, of possibility. I