The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

真相很少是纯粹的，也从不简单。

We live in an age of narrative complexity, where the stories we tell are as intricate as the lives we lead.

我们生活在一个叙事复杂的时代，我们讲述的故事和我们过的生活一样复杂。

The world is full of stories, and from time to time they permit themselves to be told.

世界充满了故事，时不时它们允许自己被讲述。

To be a writer is to sit down at one's desk in the chill portion of every day, and to write; not waiting for the little jet of the blue flame of genius to start from the breastbone.

成为一名作家就是在每天的寒冷时分坐在书桌前写作；不等待从胸骨中喷出的蓝色天才火焰。

We are all haunted by the ghosts of our own pasts, and sometimes, by the ghosts of others.

我们都被自己过去的幽灵所困扰，有时也被别人的幽灵所困扰。

The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.

写作的行为需要不断地潜入过去的阴影中，在那里时间像幽灵一样徘徊。

There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.

没有真正的结局。那只是你停止故事的地方。

We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game.

我们都是拼凑而成的，组成如此无形和多样，每一部分，每一刻，都在玩自己的游戏。

Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that momentarily makes us believe we're someone else.

阅读是一种祈祷形式，一种引导冥想，让我们暂时相信自己是别人。

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

过去总是紧张的，未来是完美的。