It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pen… - William Faulkner

At night it is better still. I used to lie on the pallet in the hall waiting until I could hear them all asleep, so I could get up and go back to the bucket. It would be black, the shelf black, the still surface of the water a round orifice in nothingness, where before I stirred it awake with the dipper I could see maybe a star or two in the bucket, and maybe in the dipper a star or two before I drank. After that I was bigger, older.

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity; it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.

Caddy got the box and set it on the floor and opened it. It was full of stars. When I was still, they were still. When I moved, they glinted and sparkled. I hushed.